• Pete McEntegart: The 10 Spot -- Mon., Dec. 13 • Truth & Rumors: Mailman headed to San Antonio? • Chris Ballard: Five NBAers not to watch • Lang Whitaker: Our own football tournament • More Blogs: Deitsch | Cannella | Wertheim Click here for Today's Sign of the Apocalypse, Game to Watch, Leading Off gallery and much more!

The BCS mess has been chewed up and spit out, a hunk of beef that every columnist in the world got a piece of. We, the media, get fired up about this because pretty much everyone went to a college that had a football team, and we don't want what happened to, say, Cal, happen to our school somewhere down the road.

Also, we're realists. We know that a postseason college football tournament would not only be exciting, but it has no downside. It would require a few more games being played but ratings would be through the roof, university presidents would be raking in cash, and the resulting positive attention would be great for the sport. Would anyone be talking about the Notre Dame coaching fiasco if the NCAA Football Tournament seeds were being announced this weekend?

The real question is, Can we do anything about it? Well, I wanted to try.

Last week I brought my copy of EA Sports' NCAA Football 2005 to work with me, and told my assistant, Sam, to come to my office and close the door behind him. I hired Sam about six months ago, not only for his strong people skills, English degree and computer aptitude, but also because he once competed in a Maddenbowl tournament. To solve the BCS conundrum and crown a true national champion, Sam and I created a 10-team college football tournament. Using the top 10 BCS-ranked teams, we began with two play-in games in order to achieve an eight-team field.

We opened with 10-seed Louisville at No. 7 Georgia. Louisville's Stefan LeFors had three interceptions and one fumble. The 'Ville drew to within 14-10 late, but UGA advanced. Game 2 was No. 9 Boise State at No. 8 Virginia Tech. This game was tight before it broke wide open in the second half, and we eventually went to overtime tied at 16. Tech's Cedric Humes ended it quickly with a 25-yard TD jaunt.

This set up our Great Eight. Game 1 was Virginia Tech at No. 1 USC. I used VaTech and found Bryan Randall largely ineffective, but Matt Lienart struggled and was sacked four times. USC used a steady dose of Reggie Bush on the ground and won 23-15, in a game not nearly as close as the score sounds.

Second-seeded Oklahoma hosted UGA. Because Adrian Peterson had a better freshman season than anyone could have imagined, he wasn't ranked as highly in the game as he should have been. (Didn't bother me, since I was using Georgia.) Sam posted a four-minute, 17-play drive to put the Sooners ahead early. Oklahoma led 17-3 after three quarters, so I yanked David Greene and replaced him with DJ Shockley, who immediately went buck wild. Sam kept trying to milk the clock, but I got the ball with the score tied and one minute remaining, and connected a bomb to Fred Gibson, who shook off a tackle and gave Georgia the upset win.

I controlled third-ranked Auburn as they hosted Utah. I had a solid 12-0 lead at the half, Cadillac Williams with 47 rushing yards. Utah's Alex Smith opened the second half with a long touchdown pass to Paris Warren. Cadillac then coughed up the ball, which Utah linebacker Corey Dodds scooped up and ran in for a 14-12 lead. Jason Campbell drove the Tigers halfway to the end zone late, but he got picked over the middle, and Auburn's chance to show and prove went down the tubes.

The final first-round game was Cal at Texas, giving the Bears a chance to bust Mack Brown's Longhorns. But Texas RB Cedric Benson was amazing, and once Cal loaded up to stop the run, Vince Young connected on a 75-yard post pattern to Tony Jeffery to grab a 21-7 halftime lead. Texas won in a laugher, 45-14, though Sam wasn't laughing.

For the semis and the final, we allowed the computer to play the games out, just to remove any possible charges of favoritism or either of us sucking.

First up was UGA at Utah, two underdogs that wouldn't be in the national title mix at all if it wasn't for our tourney. Smith completed 42 percent of his passes for 169 yards, but he had no TDs, and the Dawgs defense held Utah to just 23 rushing yards. Greene did his game management thing, and the Dawgs moved to the championship, winning 13-3.

In the other semifinal, Texas faced off against USC, and Brown put his stamp on this one. Big game? Texas loses. Of course. It didn't help that Young completed 6 of 28 passes, while USC's tenacious D held Benson to 39 yards on 13 carries. USC won, 21-3.

The final? Georgia-USC. Auburn? Gone. Oklahoma? Out. I understand that if we played this tournament 10 times, we'd probably have 10 different outcomes. But that's why we only played it once. The mark of a champion is how well your team can perform on any particular day. On this day, UGA and USC played to a 3-3 draw until David Greene tossed a TD with 53 seconds remaining. USC took the ensuing kickoff, drove the length of the field, and Leinart hit Dwayne Jarrett with 18 seconds left to tie it up. In the second OT, UGA kicked a field goal to go ahead 20-23, but on third and 10, Leinart hit tight end Dominique Byrd for a TD and the win, and the virtual national championship.

Would it really happen like this? We can't say.

Until the schools give us what we really want, we're stuck with what we have. And if that means more video games, that's alright with me.

Game Of The Week

This one nearly ruined my Saturday, and I'm guessing it'll do the same for you. Tetris, Pacman, Space Invaders -- classic '80s games are here!

Junior NBA Link Of The Week

That fight in Detroit with the Pacers? No, that'll never happen anywhere else. We'll just punish Artest and get on with it.

Inside Stuff Of The Week

Good scientific info here. What's in Cheese Whiz? What's in a baseball? Only thing it doesn't explain is the cream and the clear.

Lang Whitaker is the online editor at SLAM magazine and writes daily at SLAMonline.com. He claims to be one of the world's best Tetris players.