McCombs: College football's new system slightly better than BCS

Why do we put ourselves through this? Why do we insist on some sort of misguided ritual?

After the college football conference championship games of Friday and Saturday, there shouldn't have been anybody in the country who didn't know the four teams the college football playoff committee would release just before 1 p.m. Sunday.

Alabama, Oregon, Florida State and Ohio State were in. We all knew TCU and Baylor would be left on the outside looking in. It didn't matter who you thought SHOULD be in. We all knew who WOULD be in.

At this point, it really doesn't matter why. Despite a lot of consternation over how the committee came to its final four, whether TCU should have ever been No. 3 or ever been passed over after a ridiculous blowout win, there is really no point arguing about it. These four will play it out to decide a champion. And there's little argument that the champion this year won't be the best team in the country or that a deserving team didn't have a shot at the crown.

And for that the system this year is better than the system last year.

Last season, given this year's scenario, it's not hard to see how it would play out. Undefeated Florida State, winners of 29 straight, would likely face Alabama, champion of the powerful SEC, for the national championship.

Oregon? The Ducks would be on the outside looking in. Unlike this year's omission of TCU and Baylor, leaving Oregon out of the process would have been a crime.

And that's why this system is better than the Bowl Championship Series. Three unbeaten major powers will no longer mean two play for the title and one is left out.

But the BCS was progress. It replaced the old bowl coalition. It meant the top two teams in the comprehensive standings, not just writers' or coaches' polls, played for a championship, outside of the traditional bowl tie-ins.

And the bowl coalition was progress over the old bowl free-for-all. With all the bowl tie-ins, you could have two unbeaten teams who could never play each other. It all came down to the voters.

And before the explosion of bowls, the postseason games didn't even count in the final polls. A champion was decided before a team ever played a game against one of the other top teams in the country.

No, college football is on the right track. It's a good bet that sometime in the next couple of decades, the powers that be will take another step toward getting it right. But why does it have to be so tough?

How difficult is it to see that a four-team playoff with a potential for five dominant conference champions would present a problem? Wouldn't an eight-team postseason with five automatic bids for the big five conference champions make sense?

The answer is yes. But the truth is the NCAA was never willing to stand up to the money in the top tier of college football and have a playoff. And as a result, college football is still wandering through the desert.

When will the powers that be get it right? It'll be a while.

For now, it'll have to be good enough to be on the right track.

This story was originally published December 8, 2014 at 1:00 AM with the headline "McCombs: College football's new system slightly better than BCS."