Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan State are all ranked in the top eight of the Week 14 BCS standings, released Sunday night.
And so that means they'll all be in the college football playoffs -- oh, wait.
It really is a shame that the NCAA and the bowl poohbahs can't figure out a way to have a playoff. Greedy as they are, they ought to realize they'd make even more money in a playoff. Think about a playoff, say, involving the top eight in the current rankings, say 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5. That would make top-notch matchups: Auburn vs. Michigan State, Oregon vs. Arkansas, TCU vs. Ohio State, and Stanford vs. Wisconsin.
Stanford-Wisconsin, in fact, would be a throwback to the old Big Ten vs. Pac-10 in the Rose Bowl, which would be a perfect site for a quarterfinal like that. So would several of the other "traditional" bowl sites. Even expanding it to 16 wouldn't take up that much more time -- since December is now three wasted weeks -- than playing through Jan. 8 does now.
This isn't a pipedream. Pressure is building, especially after Ohio State president Gordon Gee's ridiculous comments the other day. In any case, Auburn passed Oregon this week and the championship game will match those two, unless one or both lose their remaining regular season game, in which case TCU could sneak in. Otherwise, TCU is probably headed to the Rose Bowl to play Wisconsin in that traditional -- oh, wait. As our friends at The Heckler said on Facebook this afternoon:
This is what college football is all about: Hoping a magic computer thinks highly enough of your team's season to go to a good bowl game.
Northern Illinois cracked the BCS Top 25 this week. That likely won't make any difference at all in where they go bowling. Complete standings after the jump.
Week 14 BCS Standings
1. Auburn
2. Oregon
3. TCU
4. Stanford
5. Wisconsin
6. Ohio State
7. Arkansas
8. Michigan State
9. Oklahoma
10. LSU
11. Boise State
12. Missouri
13. Nebraska
14. Oklahoma State
15. Virginia Tech
16. Alabama
17. Nevada
18. Texas A&M
19. South Carolina
20. Utah
21. Florida State
22. Mississippi State
23. Arizona
24. West Virginia
25. Northern Illinois