Another year- another national champion?

After USC defeated Oklahoma 55-19 in the Orange Bowl, the Trojans were crowned champions of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), but the team that finished No. 1 in the BCS may not be the best college football team in the country. Though they won the tough SEC with an undefeated record, Auburn was denied a chance to play for a national championship.

The BCS was created to determine a single champion by pitting the top two computer- and poll-generated teams against each other. But this bowl season, like the last, has created more doubt than certainty.The Tigers (13-0) could have gained a piece of this year’s championship by finishing No. 1 in the AP poll, like USC did last season when it split the national championship with BCS champ LSU.

Either USC or Oklahoma would have had to narrowly win the Orange Bowl and Auburn would have had to crush Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl to even be considered a national champion in the polls, which favored USC as No. 1 all season. Just the thought that a national champion could be decided on margin of victory is absurd.

The only way to determine a true national champion is with a playoff on the field, not a ranking system in the polls or on the computers.

The P word — that’s right, I said it — a playoff, the way the champions of other NCAA sports, such as Division I-AA football, are determined. Take the top eight teams, play three rounds, and eventually the best team will be left standing. Sure, college presidents say a playoff would ruin the traditions of college football, but which ones?

It must be the current 56-team bowl system, which this year included Southern Mississippi. After a fifth-place finish in Conference-USA, the Golden Eagles could hardly be considered a powerhouse, although they did beat North Texas in the New Orleans Bowl.

Southern Miss or not, those traditions definitely include money, the thing that makes the world go ’round. The BCS also ensures that the top teams in six major conferences — the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC — and two at-large teams of those conferences’ choice would play in the top four bowls: Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, and Rose. That honor comes complete with a hefty bonus for each participant — $14.3 million this season.

Oh yeah, Notre Dame also signed a special agreement with the BCS that allows the Fighting Irish to be automatically selected if they win nine games in a season or finish in the top 10 in the BCS. Because the Irish are an independent, they could schedule 11 of the easiest opponents possible, lose two of those games, and still play in a BCS bowl. This special treatment of Notre Dame just proves where the college presidents place their priorities: money first, football second.

It now makes sense why a team like Boise State, which went undefeated this season and finished ninth in the BCS, was not given an at-large berth. Boise State doesn’t have nearly the national appeal that a Notre Dame would have, and that of course means lower TV ratings.

By granting Boise State a BCS bid, the presidents would essentially be giving their money to a school that, in their minds, had no business competing with the big boys. Instead of receiving an at-large bid to play against, let’s say fellow undefeated mid-major Utah, which would have made for an exciting game, the Broncos were sent to play 10th-ranked Louisville in the Liberty Bowl.

Though it suffered a four-point loss, Boise State fell to a Louisville team with a legitimate BCS gripe of its own. The Cardinals lost only one game all season — by three points to then-No. 3 Miami.

Perhaps nothing illustrates the flaws in the BCS more than the mere presence of No. 21 Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl. The four BCS bowls are each theoretically supposed to showcase two of the eight best teams in the country. In the case of the Fiesta, only half of that goal was accomplished — not by Big East champion Pitt, which was guaranteed a berth by winning its lowly conference, but by 12-0 Utah, which won the game 35-7.

The Utes crashed the BCS party when they won the Mountain West Conference, finished the regular season undefeated and ranked in the top six of the BCS standings. The Utes became the first non-BCS conference team to play in one of the four big-money bowls since the inception of the BCS in 1998. Had Utah finished outside of the top six, it would be in the same position as Boise State, even though the Utes proved they belong by beating Pittsburgh.

Polls, margin of victory, computer rankings, at-large bids. Those words have no place in the yearly decision of who is national champion. This year we are left with USC, Auburn, and Utah — three teams with no losses. We may end up with more than three undefeated teams in one of the next five seasons before the BCS contract expires. As simple as it sounds, the only way to decide the best team in the country is to play the games on the field.

That way, only one team will truly be crowned as the national champion.