With the end of the college football season in sight, it’s time once again for the annual debate over whether the BCS is the way to decide a national champion.

I’ll have to confess to a bit of bias here: I’ve never been a fan of the BCS.

In my humble opinion, it’s founded in elitism and snobbery.

Every year, I go through an elaborate process of trying to figure out which team would do the best job of upsetting the BCS’s apple cart - and then rooting for that team.

For the past few seasons, that team has been Boise State.

The Broncos did a big favor for the maligned mid-majors of the world with their big-time upset of Oklahoma in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl.

This year, TCU looks to have the best chance of tossing a wrench into the BCS’s plans.

But Boise State is right there again, too.

Under the BCS’s elitist plan, only one team from outside the prefered group of conferences can crash the party each season.

This team becomes the “BCS-Buster.”

And that’s wrong.

Of course, for years the national championship was a mythical thing, decided - or sometimes not decided - by twin panels of coaches and sportswriters.

That system wasn’t ideal, either. But at least it was entirely based on a human element, and not grounded in a complicated mish-mash of computer programs like the BCS.

On plenty of occasions, the national polls differed, and that, of course, fueled plenty of sports-talk radio and water-cooler discussions.

There’s no reason the Football Bowl Subdivision can’t devise a workable playoff system - maybe a 16-team bracket.

Instead of the endless back-and-forth over whether or not the Boise States and TCUs of the world deserve their shot at the brass ring, we could settle that particular issue where it belongs: On the field.

One of the main arguments you’ll hear against a playoff is that it would hurt the bowl schedule.

Right. There are too many bowls now, and the bar for getting into a bowl game is far too low.

When mediocre 6-6 teams get to go bowling, then the bowl system has been rendered meaningless already.

Of course, a playoff system wouldn’t affect the bowl system much at all.

Anyone with the inclination can still put on their who cares-game and invite two who-cares teams.

Someone has to be rewarded with a trip to Detroit in December, I suppose.

Be that as it may, I don’t expect to see a playoff system any time soon.

So for now, I’ll have to be content with rooting for the BCS to continue to be the miserable failure it often is.

Go TCU!

Contact sports editor David Vantress at 997-3111, ext. 14, or via email at dvantress@yourdailyjournal.com.