The Daily Player 12: Judgment Calls Suck

Back in the bad old BCS days, most Pac-12 fans -- with the possible exception of USC and Oregon -- still believed a Rose Bowl trip was preferable to what served as the national championship game.

For starters, it's the Grandaddy of Them All, dammit.

Secondly, it's a kick-ass vacation with local events galore in the SoCal region.

Most importantly, though, teams earned the trip by winning a conference title. Quite the concept.

Other champions were locked in to bowls elsewhere, of course, and a good time was had by all.

Non-con schedules weren't a factor. Neither were techno-rankings. In fact, not even the human pollsters' opinions mattered.

Comparatively speaking, were mythical national titles all that bad? Hell, in 1960, Minnesota was awarded the honor and then promptly got dumped in the Rose Bowl by Washington.

Well, why not? The Huskies rationalized that, since they beat the regular season No 1, then they must've been the national champions and immediately updated their records to show it.

Humans can do stuff like that when it's mythical.

These days, under a national playoff system that, by definition, eliminates one major conference champion before it even starts is about to consider overriding titlists altogether.

This is the learned parties' better way?

We're in the throes of finding out.

Here's the latest bolt of lightning that's come down from the ivory tower outpost in Grapevine with one more week before the rubber meets the road:

1. Alabama	3. Clemson
2. Ohio State	4. Washington
5. Michigan	9. Colorado
6. Wisconsin	10. USC
7. Oklahoma	11. Oklahoma State
8. Penn State	12. Florida State

Gotta say that the top nine are indeed the logical suspects for a playoff spot. The obvious question remains whether Ohio State's gonna keep a bracket position after Championship Week.

The field is slightly more jumbled in the regular-season finale of The Daily Player 12.

This would be due to the fact that it uses a numbers-only format, totally disregarding the judgmental aspects of 'eye tests' and conference prestige. For a full, Sgt Joe Friday-like description of the details, click here.

So there.

Dude woulda included Western Michigan and Boise State in the mix with a speech like that. So does this week's college football edition of just the facts, ma'am:

A few observations:

• Just as justice is allegedly blind, so are numbers. The two Broncos remain on this list because they beat the Power Five teams that had the balls to play them. Unfortunately, their scheduling games like those is a tough task, because they can beat Power Five teams.
• Championship Week will create separation here, as winning a conference title is an alleged key criteria for the Selectors. Victories are 5-pointers on this list.

And if conference championship games aren't a big deal, why are they even played?

Besides the cash windfall, that is.

Accountability can be a bitch, sometimes.