The college football season is beginning to wind down and another champion will be crowned, but the real question is if the best team will be the one hoisting the trophy at the end of the night.

The BCS is an imperfect solution in the imperfect world known as college football. When you have an undefeated Boise State team, from the Western Athletic Conference, playing in the Poinsettia Bowl and not in a BCS Bowl Game, while two unworthy teams in Virginia Tech and Cincinnati battling in the Orange Bowl, this highlights the problems with the current system.

Boise State, ranked No. 9 in the final BCS standings, ended up being knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten by Texas Christian 17-16. Also, how about TCU the No. 11 team in the BCS standings, having to play in a lesser bowl because it plays in the Mountain West Conference.

There needs to be an adjustment to the system to stop these shortcomings. When Urban Meyer was still coaching at Utah, his Utes were nearly left out of the BCS then because they played in a small conference and the big conferences were the puppet masters pulling the strings of the BCS.

Those puppet masters are still at it, but threw the smaller conferences a bone when it amended the selection process to include a team from outside the ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC if they were ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS standings. Or if the team on the outside of the big conferences is in the top 16 and the winner of a power conference is ranked below them.

Currently, there are five BCS games, the Sugar Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, the Rose Bowl and

the BCS Championship Game which means only 10 teams will be able to qualify

each season. Six spots are guaranteed to the winners of the ACC, Big East,

Big 10, Big 12, Pac-10

and SEC so very few

small conference teams will ever be able to fight their way in.

And no one should forget the shadow cast from

the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. Another special clause had to be written to

include Notre Dame. If the Irish finish at least No. 8 in the final BCS standings, then they automatically receive a berth.

This year the Big 12 was the cream of the crop in college football with four teams in the top 13 in the final standings. Oklahoma edged out Florida for the top spot, while Texas was just behind the Gators in third. Texas Tech was No. 7 and Oklahoma State was No. 13.

So were the Big 12 teams rewarded for great seasons by having three teams play in BCS bowl games? No, because no conference can have more than two teams play in BCS bowl games.

So instead of having say Texas Tech play Boise State in the Orange Bowl, we saw Cincinnati (No. 12) against Virginia Tech (No. 19) because Cincinnati won the Big East title, while Virginia Tech captured the ACC crown.

I’m not sure proponents of the BCS system can justify allowing the No. 12 and No. 19 teams play in a game which is supposed to highlight the best 10 teams in the country. Could an argument be made that even if the top 10 teams are selected a team or two is left out? Absolutely. But fall down nine spots to put a mediocre Virginia Tech team in the Orange Bowl is just about inexcusable.

The BCS was created to put the best teams on the field and let them decide the championship, but with the big conferences making sure their teams get in, it is difficult to say who is the best.

After all, Utah was able to finish sixth in the final BCS standings and earned the right to play in the Sugar Bowl against Alabama. The Utes proved they deserved to be mentioned with the country’s elite on the gridiron with a 31-17 victory.

This should move them into the top five at the end of the year, perhaps top three, but when all is said and done, the Utes will still be only undefeated team in college football. And they will still not be national champions.