College football's postseason system is a joke

Thank goodness they actually have an NCAA champion in men's basketball, women's soccer and field hockey instead the joke of a system used to determine a champion in the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.

You won't catch me call it a national championship when the process that leads to picking the two teams is a  bogus, skewed sports version of bad politics.

The only NCAA national championships in football are in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision and in the smaller divisions. The winner of the BCS championship game is just that: The BCS champion. And that team -- either Texas or Alabama -- will likely finish No. 1, but don't call that team the national champion.

Granted, it's a huge improvement from the old days when the two perceived best teams ended up playing in separate bowls and pollsters decided who finished No. 1. But it's still a corporate sideshow that serves the sponsors, the coffers of the conferences and the schools, but certainly not the players or the fans.

I'm reveling in yet another women's soccer national championship for North Carolina, the Tar Heels' 21st (20 NCAA titles and one AIAW title), to go with the field-hockey title by UNC a couple of weeks earlier. But I realize that no matter how good my Heels were in football, they'd never have a shot at playing in that trumped up championship game at the Rose Bowl.

The only ACC team that likely would have ended up in the BCS championship game had it finished the regular season undefeated is Virginia Tech. That's because the Hokies began the season highly ranked and, in that scenario, would have defeated Alabama. I suppose that would have put the Hokies up against Texas in the BCS title game.

The weakness of the ACC was underscored by the ACC championship-game teams -- Clemson and Georgia Tech -- losing their final regular-season games to SEC teams not even at the top of their conference -- South Carolina and Georgia.

Given that weakness, no other ACC team would have had a shot at playing in the BCS title game. Instead, it would have been left out of the big game just like unbeatens Boise State, TCU and Cincinnati.

Once you get past the BCS title game, the bowls games long ago shoved tradition aside when most prostituted their names for corporate dollars. Even before that happened, the magic of the sort of run like the one by Hickory High in "Hoosiers" never was possible.

Sure, the George Masons of the college-basketball world know that the chances that they will win a national championship are remote. But they at least know that they have some control of their destiny instead of the helpless feeling faced by most college-football teams.

N.C. State's 1983 team probably would have been consigned to a lowly bowl or stayed home under college-football's system instead of being given the chance to make an incredible run to the national championship.

The bowl games are so insignificant that teams routinely change coaches before a bowl game. The only time that happened in college basketball came when Bill Frieder, left, took the Arizona State job before the 1989 NCAA tournament. Michigan athletics director Bo Schembechler wanted a "Michigan man" coaching the tournament. His replacement, Steve Fisher, coached the Wolverines to the national championship.

North Carolina already has had its football banquet and given out team awards even before it plays a Charlotte bowl that has nothing but a corporate name. A tournament-bound basketball team never would have a team banquet before the NCAA tournament.

The Alabama-Florida game essentially was the national semifinal and the BCS championship game won't be played until Jan. 7 -- 32 days later. I'll guarantee that they never will have the national semifinals of the NCAA basketball tournament one day and wait 32 days to play the final. Thank goodness!

While the NCAA basketball tournament committee tries to make sure there is balance as they are placing the teams in the field, the BCS bowls pick teams as if it's a fantasy-football draft.

I'll turn my attention to the FCS tournament, thank you. William and Mary is two wins away from a national championship and controls whether it makes it to the championship game. No computer or polls have anything to do with that.

What a concept!

Spartans' rally helps me fight irrational exuberance

After North Carolina's first-half performance against Michigan State, I was reminded of former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan's warnings about irrational exuberance.

The Tar Heels' efficiency against a quality national power such as the Spartans really got me pumped up about the potential of this team. I've said all along that UNC would have plenty of rough games and that it might not be until February that we know if this team is a national-championship contender. I've always figured the team would be fine by that time.

UNC's first-half play made me wonder if the team will mature enough to get there sooner. But letting Michigan State get back into the game in the second half reminded me that this team still is young and must learn to put teams away.The Heels have to start making their free throws, particularly against the toughest teams.

A pretty satisfying 89-82 win even if the Heels gave me a scare at the end.

Roy Williams obviously wanted to use his depth to try to wear down Michigan State and push the tempo. How else do you explain Leslie McDonald playing five minutes after never getting off the bench in the win over Nevada?

The play of Marcus Ginyard and the 3 Ds: Deon (above), Davis (left) and Drew was outstanding and the injection of life from Henson, and even Strickland at times, showed that the Tar Heels may be a bit deeper than I thought.

Ginyard was outstanding if he did nothing on the offensive end with the way he harassed Kalin Lucas. If there's are thoughts that Lucas is an All-America candidate, they might go away if he had Marcus guarding him on a nightly basis.

But Marcus also played well on the offensive end, including an amazing spin move to the hoop in the first half.

I've said that Deon Thompson needs to become a go-to guy for UNC inside that Tyler Hansbrough was last year and, in the last couple of games in particular, he's shown that he has the ability to be that sort of player. In the first half, his  +/- was +17. That turnover with about 1:30 left was irritating, though, and he did make a few unfortunate decisions down the stretch..

When you add the impressive moves Ed Davis displayed in this game (22 points, 6 rebounds), it has to make it even easier for Deon (14 points) with teams having to plan to deal with both of them.

Larry Drew II, right, really is making strides in managing the offense and being confident with his decisions and shot selection with 18 points and 6 assists.

There was a stretch of the first half when Henson showed aggressiveness and, with his wing span and ability, you could see him starting to show more confidence.

I'd still like to see UNC rebound better and cut down on the turnovers. I sure hope more opponents dare to play man-to-man against the Heels!

Overall, a pretty impressive game against a Spartans team I was worried would beat the Tar Heels.

And Luke Winn points out that:

The Spartans allowed 1.14 points per possession to the Tar Heels on Tuesday -- the exact same amount the '08-09 State team allowed to a far superior UNC club in the national title game in Detroit. The ultra- efficient foursome of Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Danny Green and Wayne Ellington are all gone, but the Heels were still equally as effective.

Time will tell if that had more to do with the Heels' offense, the Spartans' defense or was simply a combination.