“Every other sport does it.”

I know, I know, it’s Stewart Mandel, but still, he stumbles onto a key point with this observation:

… Much of the angst directed toward the BCS is not about the format as much as the selection process, which puts teams’ fates in the hands of sportswriters, coaches and computers. While no postseason format will ever be controversy-free, the proposed “plus-one” — a four-team playoff using the bowls as semifinals — would widen the pool of contenders without devaluing the regular season.

However, at the BCS meetings in Hollywood, Fla., last spring, several conference commissioners expressed their reservation that a plus-one would be the first step down an inevitable path toward an eight- or, eventually, 16-team playoff. And that’s when the college regular season as we know it goes kaput.

Which leads me to this question:  why are those of you who are playoff proponents so much more sanguine about the prospects for avoiding an expanded postseason than are the conference commissioners – you know, the ones who will actually be making the decisions?  What do you guys know that they don’t?

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Gators, you’re on the clock now.

I know it’s a relatively minor thing, but I want to give Damon Evans a pat on the back for something.

It’s a pleasure to read a story about the reluctance of SEC teams to travel for non-conference games without Georgia being mentioned.  Instead, we get this:

… We’d like to see SEC teams, with their wealth of talent and top-notch teams, get out and show other parts of the country how great they are at playing football. BCS champion Florida, for example, hasn’t played an out-of-state nonconference game since Sept. 21, 1991, when it lost at Syracuse, 38-21.

Excuse me while I pull out my fingers and toes for a moment.  Seventeen years – that’s a long time, isn’t it?

Thanks, Damon.

Thursday morning buffet

Please try not to sneeze on the food.

• I know it’s an irrational response, but if Matt Stafford doesn’t wind up being a top ten pick in the April draft, I’m gonna be a little pissed off (as well as more than a little puzzled) about why he left.
• Why does Mark Richt make more money than the POTUS?  Maybe it’s because he’s had a better eight year run.
• When the dust settles, will there be any head coaches speaking to each other at this year’s SEC Media Days?
• Brian Cook offers a thoughtful rebuttal to me on D-1 playoffs, but “Any reasonably-constructed CFB playoff champion…”?  Is that possible in a universe that contains Notre Dame?
• And while we’re on the subject of playoffs, Doc Saturday falls in love with the format from… Australian Rules Football?  Seriously?  We’re gonna institute a playoff arrangement that potentially sets up rematches in the title game, so that we could have two teams go 1-1 against each other in the postseason, yet one would be named national champ?  Jesus H. Christ on a bicycle. I thought the main purpose to adopting one of these shiny new playoff thingys was to reduce controversy.
• Cool beans.