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It took one sloppy, high-impact, scintillating game for the playoff whiners to begin their nonsensical whining.
Boise State's last-minute, Labor Day victory over Virginia Tech exemplified absolutely everything that is right about college football.
You'll be waiting four months for the NFL to play a game as meaningful and dramatic.
But, according to the playoff whiners, that's not the story this week. The story is how unfair it is the Broncos gained pole position for the BCS title game after one weekend. The story is how terrible it is that the rest of Boise State's schedule is filled with mostly cupcakes.
The story is, as it always is with the whiners, that college football needs a playoff system so that it can mimic the NFL and college basketball and NASCAR and Major League Baseball and everything else.
No one cares that the MLB season is long and boring, college basketball's regular season is totally irrelevant and the NFL can't sell out its overpriced stadiums and ends its regular season with its best teams choosing rest over perfection.
None of that matters. College football is broken! It must be saved from 33-30, David-slaying-Goliath games.
Don't you understand? Boise State-Virginia Tech was a tragedy. You didn't enjoy Brent Musberger and Kirk Herbstreit going bonkers over a September game that could have meaning in January. Kellen Moore's game-winning drive was a dud.
Monday night was a horrific ending to college football's opening weekend. It gave us nothing to talk about or consider. Thrilling, significant sporting events must take place at the end of the season. It's a rule. Monday's game was a disaster.
Do I enjoy the NFL playoffs? Hell, yeah. Do I enjoy the NCAA Tournament? Of course.
But everything doesn't have to be the same for me to enjoy it. Don't listen to the pack journalists, the guys and gals who hate college football's bowl system simply because it's different.
And don't hand me the bowl "corruption" excuse. A playoff system would be just as corrupt.
No, this whole annual, silly argument is about conformity. We don't properly appreciate originality and diversity. We're so fixated on what we've been led to believe is wrong about college football that we don't fully comprehend what's right: the regular season.
The story leading into the NFL season is "blackouts." Multiple cities won't have numerous home games televised because the value of NFL regular-season tickets are declining. Sports fans are getting wiser. They're not going to pay $250 a seat for games that are not all that significant. They'd rather watch at home on their HD flat screens and see all the replays.
NFL games used to be the event. Being inside the stadium used to matter. Not anymore. You can have a better experience at home, and you don't feel like you've missed anything -- other than the drunken idiot in the seat next to you who complains about every play call.
Being inside FedEx Field Monday night was important. It was an event. The lucky Boise State fans who made the trip will probably save their ticket stubs as keepsakes. Virginia Tech fans got their money's worth, too, and probably feel like they witnessed a bit of history.
Boise's road to the BCS Championship went through Va. Tech.
Or did it?
Count me as someone who watched Monday's game and saw holes in the Broncos secondary that will cost them at least one game this season. Even with a steady pass rush, Hokies quarterback Tyrod Taylor found receivers running wide open all night. And Taylor is more runner than thrower.
Boise State can be beat, even in its mid-major conference.
If BSU runs the table and advances to the BCS Championship over a one-loss team from a power conference, so what?
Butler wasn't the second-best team in college basketball. Duke wasn't the best team in college basketball.
Who knows if Alabama was the best team in college football last season? Colt McCoy's early injury dashed Texas' shot at the title.
Everyone needs to pipe down and enjoy the journey. We're one weekend in and college football has already delivered a season-defining game. I suspect there will be a dozen more before Thanksgiving.
