Cone says "let college football stay weird." I agree in principle, but we all know there's good weird and there's bad weird.
The BCS is bad weird. Big 12 teams in the Rose Bowl. The Orange Bowl on Jan.2. As I wrote over at Publius, it's crazy that Wake Forest won't be playing on New Year's Day after its historic season.
Michael Rosenberg makes the case for good weird:
Michigan should face Florida on the field.
No, not in a playoff. Florida should head to the Sugar Bowl as the Southeastern Conference champion.
Michigan should go there as the best available at-large team.
Ohio State? The Buckeyes should fly out to the Rose Bowl, as the Big Ten champ, to face Pac-10 champion Southern Cal.
If the Buckeyes beat USC, they would be undisputed national champions. If they lost, the door would be open for the Michigan-Florida winner.
That is how college football worked for a few decades before people decided to look out for No. 1 and only No. 1. Conference champions went to specific bowls -- everybody else went to the best bowl they could find.
The sport wasn't perfect. Last year's USC-Texas matchup never would have happened under the old system.
But it was better than the Bowl Championship Series because teams got what they earned, and the system never claimed to be something it wasn't.
Given the fact that the BCS has rendered the system beyond weird, I'd rather go ahead with a playoff system. Just one run by an underdog would make everyone wonder why they didn't do it years ago.