The most reasonable man in college football?

Read this Q&A with TCU head coach Gary Patterson and see if you don’t come away impressed and sympathetic.

Q: What do you say to those who claim TCU and Utah and Boise State couldn’t play week in and week out in the Big 12 or the SEC or any other major conference?

A: Look, we won at Oklahoma (in 2005). Our record against the Big 12 and other major conferences is right there for all to see. We’re not hiding from it. It’s not so much the level of players; it’s the amount of players. When you have that depth, then you can play on a daily basis with all the rest of them.

I’ve tried to stay out of the argument because I really feel like the best thing we can do as a group right now is to win ballgames. If you can do that, you’re going to keep yourself on that mountain, and hopefully one day get to the top.

That’s it, brother.

By the way, the play-in game is an excellent idea.  In fact, I like it better than the automatic berth for the highest ranked non-BCS conference school.

For one thing, it gives the non-BCS schools an extra game like the SECCG, which means more money for them that won’t be coming out of any other conference’s pocket.  Secondly, it should mean some terrific exposure for those schools, which is bound to help program building for the schools that manage to play in it repeatedly.  Third, assuming quality matchups, it should help the winner’s strength of schedule, which might give a BCS-buster that extra boost it needs in a given year.