Frankly, I like college football.  But I also like it as a Saturday afternoon thing.  Maybe Saturday nights for The Really Big Game.  I always liked walking across campus with friends, alcoholic beverage hidden under my coat, and entering into the stadium.  My college alma mater is an smaller, older one in the northeast, so the weather was usually crisp and the Saturday afternoon light had that wonderful quality that a northeastern October afternoon, turning leaves and all, has.  And, being a small school, I had a number of classes with guys on the teams.  Given the size of the school that was inevitable, but it also helped build a sense of community.

I'm sure colleges all across the country have their own individual football traditions and atmospheres which are dear to their alumni and alumnae.  Obama's alma mater, Columbia, was for many years a notorious doormat (even to smaller schools, like mine), and losing seemed almost a part of their mystique.  A friend from my post-college years went to Alabama and recounted all the different traditions they had.  We also had long JoePa v. Bear Bryant dicsussions.  But I digress.

When college football started showing up on TV on Thursday nights, I got concerned.  Now it's on Wednesdays, Sundays, Fridays and just about every day except, I guess, Monday.  Maybe Tuesday.  It's nice to see the Boise States and Marshalls, but...

The kids - the vast majority of whom are either playing for love of the game or in self-delusion over their NFL/CFL chances - are being exploited.  I wonder how many of them are making their 8 am lab courses the morning after the Wednesday night ESPN game.  Not too many, I suspect.  Assuming they're actually majoring in something other than P.E. Studies.  Fifteen or twenty years ago, this level of exploitation hit in mens' basketball.  Then womens'.  Now in the last couple, football has gotten worse than it ever was.

As a college football fan, I say forget it.  We did fine for years by having the old college bowl system.  No, it didn't proclaim a "best," but that didn't seem to matter all that much to anybody.

And then get rid of the conference championship games. That will surely draw the support of alumni,  boosters and local businesses. Gees!

I hope he has better ideas, and more thought out ideas, for the country than he does for college football.

I got a big kick out of Obama sketching an outline of his version.

But Obama's smart. He knows that keeping the media on his side will make his life easier and he knows that the media is frothing at the mouth to have a Division 1A (or FBS) playoff.

Eight teams eh.

What if we have 10 teams in the division formerly known as 1A with 1 loss? Or in a year when 1 team is undefeated, 2 teams have 1 loss and 12 teams have two losses.

After all, they are supposed to be students and this would be above and beyond the call of duty for them.  So give all the players an equal stipend, let the schools get an equal share of the advertising revenues and let'er rip!