Another strike against a college football playoff

The Fiesta Bowl was a dud -- an extremely boring, poorly played game between two wannabe college football powerhouses, TCU and Boise State, that should silence once and for all, even the most diehard advocate for a football playoff system.

Granted, there's never -- ever -- going to be a 16-, 8- or even a 4-team college football playoff at the end of a season. But by proving they don't belong on the same field with the conference champions from the SEC, the Big 12, the Pac 10, the Big 10 or the Atlantic Coast Conference, no one in their right mind could begin an argument with "But if there was a playoff system ... " If TCU and Boise State played that badly against each other, imagine how pitiful they would look against a real football team.

There's a simple solution to the post-season blahs we're now experiencing which results in only one bowl game of any significance.

Step 1: Elevate the Cotton Bowl to BCS status.

Step 2: Make permanent bowl assignments with the winner of the Pac 10 and Big 10 to play in the Rose Bowl (tradition is paramount here), the winner of the Big 12 hosting the Fiesta Bowl, the winner of the SEC hosting the Cotton Bowl, the winner of the ACC hosting the Sugar Bowl and the winner of the Big East hosting the Orange Bowl.

Step 3: Assign the BCS bowls based on the final BCS standings.

If that had been done this year, this is how the Bowls would have shaped up:

Rose: still Oregon vs Ohio State
Fiesta: Texas vs. Florida
Cotton: Alabama vs. TCU (It would have been ugly, but there you have it -- the chance for one of these "BCS busters" to go up against a real team.)
Sugar: Georgia Tech vs. Iowa
Orange: Cincinnati vs. Boise State

Under this scenario, at least two and possibly three teams would have finished the season undefeated. So you take those two or three and crown them co-national champions. No polls. No built-in prejudices. Everything is decided on the field of play. Plus, a team like TCU, or Cincinnati or Boise State, none of which have a prayer of ever winning a national championship under the current biased system, can at least share one this way.