Giving it a real college try

Sick of all this talk about the BCS and Nebraska and Colorado and Oregon and who should be playing and who should not? Sick of all the rationalizing and posturing by all parties concerned? Sick, just sick, that New Year's Day, the grand college football showcase for so many years now has become this protracted stretch of nonsense?

Have a seat, my friend. I have the answer.

Since these fine young men are all student athletes and since this game they play is supposed to have great educational benefit, why don't we just decide the national championship with a different sort of tiebreaker? Forget the computer rankings and the coaches polls. Let's use, well, education.

Bring in Regis. Better yet, bring in that nasty English woman in black, Anne Robinson. Let the winners of all the New Year's bowls and the game the day after and the day after that be eligible. Let each team send a representative. Maybe two from the University of Miami, if it's still unbeaten. Let's ask the educational questions. You know, a little Elizabethan poetry, a touch of calculus, some art appreciation, maybe causes and effects of the Industrial Revolution. Let's find out who -- really -- is the weakest link.

The champion in the end will be a true college champion, a representative of what is best both on and off the field of combat. The losers will go home to bulk up their field-goal kicking and maybe improve the geology department. It all works.

My only question: should Harvard University, unbeaten and untied this year, be eligible under this format?

Leigh Montville's commentaries appear regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.

Related information
Multimedia
Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video
Search our site	Watch CNN/SI 24 hours a day
	Sports Illustrated and CNN have combined to form a 24 hour sports news and information channel. To receive CNN/SI at your home call your cable operator or DirecTV.