Boise State's storybook finish marred by playoff talk

	Would the Boise State players reacted with such glee if this was just one step in a bowl playoff? AP

If you didn't see the Boise State-Oklahoma game Monday night, you blew it. You'll never see a better football game. It had swerves, surprises, schoolyard spirit and a back-and-forth of great plays.

Oklahoma played its Goliath part perfect, making the comeback you knew would happen and snatching a late lead. Then Boise State saved itself with a desperation hook-and-ladder play that we've all seen fail a hundred times -- on 4th-and-18, no less. Then in overtime Boise State goes for an all-or-nothing two-point conversion and pulls out a Statue of Liberty play to win it.

As if that wasn't enough, Boise State running back Ian Johnson then gets down on one knee and proposes to his girlfriend, a Boise State cheerleader.

(I personally thought Johnson chose an odd time to retire from dating, just when he was primed to peak in that arena .Still, the storybook moment is tough to resist).

The game, in other words, was as good as it gets. Which is why I don't get the people who say it was not enough. The Fox broadcasters started in, saying Boise State's performance demonstrated the need for a college playoff. Columnists have since weighed in with similar opinions.

If anything, I would argue, this game proved the opposite. The system shouldn't be touched, because it creates climaxes like this with no championship on the line. It shows that bowl games work perfectly as an end to themselves.

In pro football it makes sense that we have only one winner, that every team except one ends its season with a disappointing final result. But every place need not resemble Tolkien's Middle Earth, with one ring to rule them all, and one ring to bind them.

Boise State's Fiesta Bowl rings will be savored as much as any jewelry that gets minted after the BCS title game because of the power of the memory to which it is attached. It wouldn't have been the same if this were simply a step in a playoff.

How awful would it have been for those players to be walking off the field while offering the perspective, "We haven't accomplished anything yet. We need to get ready for Ohio State." As it was, the postgame interviewers pushed players toward such sentiments, asking, "Do you think it's unfair that you don't get a shot at playing Ohio State?" A couple of players even said they felt it was unfair.