BCS FAILINGS BEG FOR PLAYOFF SYSTEM

FROM Gainesville to South Bend and Fayetteville to Los Angeles, there is teeth-gnashing and hand-wringing.
How could this happen?

You lose, you drop - it's the cardinal rule of college football polls.

The Michigan Wolverines lost on Saturday, a 42-39 defeat at Ohio State that assured the Buckeyes of their first outright Big Ten title since 1984 and a guaranteed place in the national title game. In the latest BCS standings, Ohio State became the first school ever to score a perfect 1.000.



They are the Bo Derek of college football.

For one night, fans of Gators, Fighting Irish, Razorbacks and Trojans were certain the Michigan loss would bring their beloved team one step closer to being Ohio State's opponent. And then they awoke to find the voters and computers still embracing the Wolverines.

Florida coach Urban Meyer said university presidents had to do something, "Now!" to correct this horrible injustice. He wants a playoff, "Now!" This is the worst case of voter fraud since the last Cuban election.

This makes two weeks in a row that Meyer has blown a gasket and he's 1-for-2 in the righteous indignation category. Last week he wanted to know who are "these men" who decide the championship of college football.

Meyer echoed an argument I've been making since the Bowl Alliance, which preceded the BCS, that players had the right to have their playoff decided on the field. Considering we have some great academic institutions that play I-A football, can't we get some professors to draw up a simple survey: "Are Division I-A players content with the current system or do they want a playoff?"

If the players say they are content with sportswriters from Austin to Boston, and computer geeks holed up in a basement with a giant can of Red Bull and an industrial-size bag of Doritos deciding their title game, then we're stuck with the BCS. If they say they want a playoff, we must give them a playoff.

There really isn't a good reason not to settle this on the field. University presidents are opposed to a playoff because they say it will interfere with academics, yet they're fine with basketball players missing a month during the NCAA Tournament. Athletic directors fear the extended season will increase injuries, yet they add a 12th game. Coaches are fine with the BCS until they realize their team is the one that's about to be jobbed.

Michigan made a strong case in defeat. Florida has suffered just one loss against a monster schedule. USC is gaining strength and can enhance its case with wins over Notre Dame and UCLA. ND, which got drilled at home by Michigan, and Arkansas, nailed in Fayetteville by USC, have the weaker cases, but if the Irish annihilate the Trojans and the Razorbacks thump LSU and Florida in the SEC title game, well, you decide.

The BCS was created to do one thing: match the top teams in the country in a national title game. This year it can't even figure out who the No. 2 team is. Can you?

lennrobbins@nypost.com

Auburn coach Tuberville calls for playoff system

Auburn is 5-0 and ranked third in the nation behind Ohio State and USC in the USA Today and Harris Polls and second in the Associated Press poll, but coach Tommy Tuberville said Wednesday that he has doubts any SEC team can make the national championship game without a playoff system.
"I've about had it with this playoff deal," Tuberville said after a lengthy, emotional argument for a playoff. "We all understand in our conference how tough it is. In our conference, that's about the only chance we'd have to make it."

The SEC boasts five teams in the Top 13 of the AP poll: Auburn (No. 2), Florida (No. 5), LSU (No. 9), Georgia (No. 10) and Tennessee (No. 13).

While Auburn, Florida and Georgia are all undefeated, Florida plays LSU this week and Auburn the week after. And Georgia plays Tennessee this week.

Two years ago, Auburn finished 13-0, but did not appear in the national championship game.

"There is no reason on this earth why we can't have the best four and then play one more," Tuberville said. "That's the legitimate thing to do. We added a BCS game -- for what in the world? -- I understand we're avoiding lawsuits and making money. But let's take care of the players."

Tuberville said excuses are invalid.

"The problem we have is you have 120 universities that are I-A and probably 25 would say they have a legitimate chance each year," he said. "And you have presidents that for some reason look at it more as for the money than having a national championship on the field. They keep coming up with lame excuses about academics. Football players miss fewer classes than anybody."

Tuberville said he hopes the tenure of SEC commissioner Mike Slive as the current head of the BCS will help aid a playoff structure, but he said he doubts it will happen in his lifetime. Simply put, he said the time has come for an eight-team playoff structure.

"Presidents take the money and go spend it, but they don't worry about the business of making it better," Tuberville said. "They keep coming up with excuses, yet we're playing [the national championship game] Jan. 8. It's hypocritical."

Former Florida coach Steve Spurrier, long a playoff proponent, said he can't worry about it as much now that he's at South Carolina. But, he acknowledged, "The people that run college football don't listen to the coaches anyway."

Joe Schad is ESPN's national college football reporter.