Clarification

I have been hammered for my statement that Utah doesn't deserve a National Championship. Let me clarify my position on this:

Under the current system, unless the AP decides to go Utah's way in the poll, Utah has no claim on the National Championship. Should they win it? I don't think so. Should they be given the opportunity to play for a chance at it? Absolutely. Does the current system stink? Absolutely. If you want to argue that the system stinks, great, I'm with you. If you want to argue that Utah should be given the NC under the current system, I'm very much against you. As much as you hate it, Utah did not play in the National Championship game. They didn't even beat the number 3 team to claim they were the best of the two teams not in the championship game.

Under the previous system, Utah would have probably played Arizona in the Vegas Bowl, or maybe gotten lucky and played Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl. So we've come part of the way. Utah, in 2008, can be in the discussion as one of the best teams in the country. Can we get the rest of the way? I don't know how that can happen: tell me, what solution makes sense AND can be sold to the powers that be. There are plenty of ideas that make sense, not very many that the powers that be like, and none that do both.

I had planned on sharing my solution, which makes sense, but it is not very sellable, so I will hold off on that until I can develop a better solution. Briefly, it would have been this: drop the 40 worst programs, make 8 10-team conferences with the remainder (entirely based on geography, but attempting to keep the conferences somewhat even). Every conference sends its top two teams to the 16-team playoff. I might also have added an element where the worst team in each conference is replaced by one of the 8 best I-AA teams each year. The idea never fully took flight. Anyway, no one would really buy into it: especially Washington State.