Editorial: Crowning a true champion

Friday, Jan. 6, 2006 | 7:34 a.m.

The Bowl Championship Series, the system that is supposed to determine the best NCAA football team, got lucky this year. The Rose Bowl game, which pitted the teams ranked first and second in the country, lived up to its advance hype.

Texas quarterback Vince Young ran for 200 yards and passed for 267 more in leading his team to a stunning 41-38 upset victory over top-ranked USC, which had its 34-game winning streak snapped. Texas' dramatic win was spectacular, as Young scored one of his three touchdown runs in the final 19 seconds of the game.

Before the game was played, many sportswriters and television analysts had written off Texas' chances to win. But, obviously, games are won on the field -- not in the press box -- offering yet another reason why college football should not rely on the Bowl Championship Series and should instead have a playoff system to determine the true national champion.

The bowl system enriches the larger football conferences, which have lucrative deals with the bowls, and the television networks that broadcast them. Football is the only major collegiate sport without playoffs, and in the past it often hasn't resulted in the two best teams playing for the national championship.

The glow from the Rose Bowl game probably will dampen calls for a playoff system, and that's too bad. College football fans and the players themselves deserve to have playoffs that determine the true national champion.