Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

College football leaders discovered fire this week.

If you’re a fan of the sport, you may have felt the sudden urge to call someone you love, just to tell them you love them. Perhaps you went to Waffle House and picked up the tab for the whole room. Maybe you were playing golf and your group decided, “If it’s on the green, it’s in.”

There is that much cause for celebration following Thursday's announcement that BCS officials will review a variety of four-team playoff options, picking one by the time the 2014 season gets here.

Several decades ago, college football fans had a dream. We didn’t think it was unfair. All we wanted was a legitimate champion. One determined by winning games on the field - not by polls or computers. Just like every other major sport, including other divisions of college football.

Was that too much?

We were force-fed the spin from the bowl officials. A playoff was bad for academic reasons even though college football has a shorter season than several other sports. A playoff was bad for the bowl systems, and who could bear bidding adieu to the Continental Tire Bowl?

The outrage spawned countless columns and articles condemning the system. Fans posted all sorts of raging posts on message boards and made signs for the background of the College GameDay set. Books were written. Whenever the BCS was brought up, fans stood united in a common cause. This has been us.

It’s finally happened.

That means it’s all but certain we only have two more seasons of the BCS system we’ve grown to abhor since 1998. So if your team plans on pulling a 2004 Auburn season, just wait a couple more years. You’ll get a legit shot at the championship.

It’s not perfect. There are several fans who continue to want an eight- or 16-team playoff, but surely we can all agree this is a huge, gigantic step in the right direction. So let’s all agree to be happy with the little playoff we’ve got. At least for a while.

And don’t worry, the annual college football who’s in/who’s out debate will march on. It’ll happen each year. Just as it’s been incredibly rare that we’ve had an obvious pair of teams for the championship game, it will likely be rare that we get an obvious four teams. We’ll probably have another 2007 season at some point. In case you’ve forgotten, here’s a rundown of what happened then:

• 12-0: Hawaii
• 11-1: Ohio State, Kansas
• 11-2: LSU, Oklahoma, Missouri, Virginia Tech
• 10-2: USC, West Virginia, Georgia, Arizona State, BYU

The college football world was able to convince itself that Ohio State and LSU were the best two teams, and if four from that group had to be selected, who knows what would have happened. Someone still would have been left out, but it would’ve been closer to fair.