Flickr image by Ed Yourdon

We really do live in a great time in history. It is rather amazing to think that in my lifetime, we went from having to actually go to an arcade to play video games to not only being able to play them from your home, but against an opponent that is all the way on the other side of the world. Boredom would quickly set in on long road trips back when I was a kid, but now, nearly every minivan rolling off the assembly line has a built in DVD player and backseat monitors.

But to me, I feel like we have damn near reached the promised land now days, since I was able to enjoy the Texas A&M/Oklahoma State game live, while traveling on a flight from Denver to Milwaukee. Now, this is not a full on sponsored plug by any means, but I love flying on Frontier Airlines. The airfare is competitive with the rest of the industry, they are adding new cities to their route map on a regular basis, they have a great frequent flier program, and they have DirectTV on a most of their flights. Like I said, I’m not getting paid for this endorsement, but they are just that good.

Now, for a simpleton like me, getting to watch TV on an airplane is just over the top cool, but to be able to actually enjoy a college football game while traveling is amazing. Aside from getting to enjoy the game, the other thing that was cool is getting to sit next to another college football fan while on the flight. So here we are…a couple of guys, having some beers and watching football…it was like a flying sports bar.
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A number of years ago, I worked with a guy who had this great quotable that has stuck with me ever since I first heard it. It may not have been original to him, so I will not give you his name. That and the fact that he might not want to admit that he knows me. Regardless, he would often say that “people are masters at creating confusion for their own benefit.” On an almost daily basis, I find this so true. If you don’t believe me, call nearly any government office and ask for anything that might be slightly out of the ordinary.

I once went to a DMV to get a letter saying that my driving record had an error on it and was corrected on a certain date. I needed this, on request from a municipal judge, so that I could defend myself against a driving citation that was nothing but pure horse squeeze. It literally took me 6 weeks, 4 visits to their offices and over 2 dozen phone calls just to get 1 person to type up a 3 sentence letter and fax it to me. It really didn’t have to be this difficult. Ultimately, it was the 1st department I spoke to that provided the letter, but chaos and confusion is the norm for some of these places, and you have to wonder why. It has to be because someone benefits. On the other hand, a bit of unnecessary confusion can be interesting and fun. I am a huge fan of Rube Goldberg, which as you know was absolutely brilliant at developing incredibly complex systems to accomplish the simplest of tasks. But as fun as this is at times, it has no place in college football.

I mentioned in a recent article that I was not a fan of a playoff system. I am also not a huge fan of the BCS. I’m a bit old school. I don’t mind using the polls to select a national champion because it’s a bit of a paper championship anyways. I’ve always placed more stock in winning a conference championship. It’s as objective as it comes, because you’re playing everyone in your conference, or at least your division and you’re having to beat the other division champion. There is nothing subjective about it. Even when there are ties for a division championship, there are at least a number of levels of objective criteria you go through to select your champion before flipping the coin. In that article, I made the argument that even in a playoff system, at some point, seeding will likely have to look at the polls. There are just way too many teams for a full blown playoff on the national level. However, in spite of my playoff pessimism, I also mentioned in said article that I have given some thought as to how a playoff might work, while balancing how to address the major concerns with a playoff. I also mentioned that I would let you in on my maniacal thoughts in a future article. This is that article.
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