The best argument against a college football playoff is this weekend. Or last weekend. Or next weekend. College football is the last place in sports where the season matters.
Undefeated Michigan at undefeated Penn State. Undefeated Florida State at undefeated North Carolina. Undefeated Nebraska . . . well, you never know.
So many implications. The great and saving grace of college football is every week is fraught with implications.
National title implications. Bowl implications. Poll implications. Heisman Trophy implications. Where is Gary Barnett’s next job offer coming from implications.
Baseball has surrendered its season and has a wild-card World Series winner to prove it. The Bears, even the Bears, were talking at 1-7 about running the table into the playoffs.
The Super Bowl will let in anyone who is healthy and lucky in January, especially from the AFC.
The Bulls are aiming to get to late April with the most home-court advantage possible, though one home loss in the playoffs can remove the reason for playing an entire schedule.
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No need to hurry back Scottie, until Michael needs a breather.
Any hockey team not in the NHL playoffs is on Guam.
College basketball does not try to find No. 1. It tries to find No. 64. When March Madness begins, being the least is just as important being the best.
Only college football is must-see, can’t-swallow every week, a breath-holding adventure from August to December, 3 1/2 months of playoffs, no more tidy in the process than in the conclusion.
In the first week in November, showdowns between unbeaten teams offer more clarity than showdowns in September, but the link to before and the link to after is what is indispensable.
If Michigan beats Penn State Saturday it will matter only if Michigan beats Ohio State, just as beating Ohio State means nothing to Penn State if it cannot beat Michigan.
Florida State can beat North Carolina, but it still must play Florida before it can get to Nebraska in the nominal title game in the Orange Bowl, the so-called Battle on the Beach, never mind the number of causeways between the beach and bowl.
And Nebraska has to beat Missouri, win the Big 12 Conference title game, which it could not do last year, and do it convincingly enough not to fall in the opinion of strangers.
Penn State was No. 1 and without losing a game became No. 2, and then without losing again, became No. 3 in one of the polls. This is seen by some as a flaw in the system. No, it is what makes the system distinctive. It is the seasoning to the season.
The fact that the rules are ambiguous adds charm, gives college football its own special character, provides that most indispensable of ingredients, a difference of opinion.
College basketball weighs strength of schedule and point differential and not merely winning and losing, but good losses, bad losses, just to choose and seed 64 teams.
College football guesses and still usually ends up with the right champion, your rare Brigham Young excepted.
There is one simple, abiding rule in college football. Don’t lose. Win as big as possible, sure, but, first, don’t lose.
And most certainly, in November, don’t lose, although Florida managed last year even to overcome that.
College football is working its way ever closer to a more flawless national championship arrangement. By next year, the Rose Bowl will be included, removing the last lump in the jam.
It is hard to see how it will taste any better than this.