BCS leads to more college football letdowns

A new college football season kicks off Thursday night with 19 Division I teams playing games with pretty much everyone else set for Friday and the rest of the weekend.

It will close on Friday night, Jan. 8, at Dolphin Stadium where the nation's two best teams will clash in the 2009 BCS Championship Game.

Or so we hope.

The more likely scenario, though, is that at least one of the nation's best teams won't get there -- because a deserving contender again will be cheated by a fatally flawed system that has produced more unnecessary controversy than true champions.

Instead of the playoff everyone except the university presidents wants, we settle for those silly polls and bowls.

Instead of championships won on the field, we get elections.

Instead of fairness, we get fraud.

And nothing will change until you, the fans, refuse to go along with this charade.

So while Southern California, Georgia, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Florida comprise the upper tier of my preseason Top 25 -- while we're probably going to see two of these teams on the field at Dolphin Stadium on Jan. 8 -- there's a real chance the nation's best team won't be there.

It happened to Southern Cal twice, in 2003 and 2007. Auburn was undefeated in 2004 and was shut out of the title bout. And West Virginia, which lost twice without starting quarterback Pat White, was every bit as good as BCS champion LSU last season.

Fact is, in sports, the best team doesn't always win. Same goes for the team everyone thinks is the best. Just ask Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

That said, a new college football season is about to kick off. There's every reason to get excited.

Except one.

The BCS.

Because there's a real chance that silly system will let us down again.

(Ray McNulty is sports columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal. Contact him at -ray.mcnulty@scripps.com or on the Web at www.tcpalm.com.)