Merry Christmas and God Bless us everyone! My gift: the annual link to the greatest 1:18 in the history of television.

Trivia question: Without looking it up, can you tell me which team scored the most points on D-IA "National Championship" contender Alabama Crimson Tide in 2011?

Answer: No, not Arkansas, LSU, Auburn, Florida, or Penn State, but rather D-IAA ("FCS") playoff contender Georgia Southern Eagles, with 21 points.

The 11-2 Eagles take on 12-1 North Dakota State in the D-IAA ("FCS") Championship Semifinals this Saturday afternoon at 2:30PM ET. You can rest assured that Erin Andrews and the College Gameday crew won't be there, but that won't stop me from watching the dramatic action between these two fine programs. Lose and you go home, win and you get to play again.

In the other real playoff game, 11-2 Montana University takes on 13-0 and #1 ranked Sam Houston State on Friday night at 8 PM. Southland Champs Sam Houston weren't given a free pass to the big game despite their undefeated record and top ranking. They will have to earn their way to the Championship.

Yep..decided on the field, the way it should be...a novel concept.

Four games were played last week in round #1 of the mock DPS playoffs. Here are the results:

#5 West Virginia 17

#12 Kansas State 31

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#6 TCU 34

#11 Michigan 38

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#7 Alabama 24

#10 Oklahoma 10

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#8 Boise State 45

#9 Stanford 42

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Round #2 Matchups:

#1 LSU (13-0) vs #8 Kansas State (11-2)

#2 Oklahoma State (11-1) vs #7 Michigan (11-2)

#3 Wisconsin (11-2) vs #6 Boise State (12-1)

#4 Oregon (11-2) vs #5 Alabama (12-1)

Nobody would watch those games, huh?

It would appear that support is potentially growning for a 'plus one' solution in D-I college football, as discussed in this article:

Final Four article at Rivals.com (opens in new window)

Good, but simply put, not good enough.

If the original 'bowls and vote only' system was a horse-and-carriage and the BCS gave us a Model T, then in my opinion the 'plus one' format hits somewhere around a Yugo. Yeah, it's a car and an improvement over the previous car. It's more comfortable than the old model, more reliable, can travel further from home base. But would you buy it to send your daughter to college in? Not a chance. You want something that won't need maintenance the minute she pulls out of the driveway.

The 1985 Yugo GV - on the esteemed list of all-time bad cars

The premier sport in the United States of America deserves the premier ending. I've always thought that D-I football was a fantastic movie with a horrific ending. Good enough for constant re-runs on TNT, but not good enough to make the top spot in your all-time greats collection.

My belief has always been that any of the top few teams in any of the top conferences and some others from not-so-top conferences could come out with a championship if given a chance. Four teams selected with a large voter bias simply isn't enough. Admittedly the DPS has slightly too many teams (with 12), but I can't go as low as four and feel that is acceptable. Eight is perfect number for me to eliminate biases and get the most deserving teams a shot. A top four this season would leave out high quality conference Champs from the Big Ten and PAC-12, in my opinion teams that would make some noise in a winner-take-all tournament.

So I'll be somewhat happy when they deliver my Yugo, but know for sure that I'll never live to see that Mercedes SLR in the driveway.

Yep, even with my wiz-bang computer ranking system, there still would be controversy given my final DPS rankings and seedings for the playoffs.

First, congratulations to my alma mater Clemson for getting up off the mat and beating Virginia Tech for our first ACC Championship in 20 years! As expected, we did not move up enough in the DPS to make the playoffs, but it was a great final effort. 

Coach Dabo Swinney gets a Gatorade bath after Clemson's 38-10 win over VA Tech. (photo from The Washington Post)

Now to the controversy. With only one game left in the regular season (Army vs. Navy), the playoff seedings for the 2011 Division-I National Football Championship Tournament are essentially set. The Army-Navy game is not expected to cause any movement in the seedings.

As mentioned in a prior post, the top 4 seeds get the week off and are supposed to go to Champions or top-15 ranked teams from Top 5 conferences that played 13 games. Unfortunately, only 3 teams qualified, so based on their overall #2 ranking Oklahoma State was given the coveted #2 seed and an extra week off. That would mean to win the tournament, they would only have to play fifteen games to every other potential champ's sixteen. Once the conference realignment mess gets sorted out, I expect this problem to be fixed. 

Scrappy Southern Miss, winners of #8-rated Conference USA, barely missed the playoffs because of a #16 final ranking. Next year, replace your game against Southeast Louisiana with a game vs. a team from a real conference and you will MAKE the playoffs! That's another beauty of the DPS, there is a real cost to scheduling cupcakes unless you're in a top-5 conference.

Here are the playoffs:

The top 4 seeds, and a coveted week off, go to the following Champs:

#1 L.S.U.(13-0) - Duh. If anybody has earned an immediate free pass to the championship game it would be the 2011 SEC Champs, but they will have to earn it like everyone else with back to back to back wins over premier teams.

#2 Oklahoma State (11-1) - An extra week off for the Big XII Champs because nobody else qualified to take their first round seeding.

#3 Wisconsin (11-2) - Congratulations to Wisconsin for winning the inaugural Big-10 Championship game. You earned a chance to play for the BIG rosey prize!

#4 Oregon (11-2) - PAC-12 Champ Oregon, who wants to play them??? Any takers?? I didn't think so. In the real world of the DPS, you must if you want to earn the title.

The D-I Playoffs, Round 1:

#5 West Virginia (9-3) vs. #12 Kansas State (10-2) - West Virginia jumped 3 spots in the DPS this week to overtake Cincinnati for the Big East spot in the D-I playoffs. The Big East edged out the ACC for conference strength, meaning West Virginia took Clemson's spot at the party despite their #21 final ranking. Kansas State finished off a good year by beating scrappy Iowa State and barely earning a spot due to their #12 DPS ranking.  

#6 TCU (10-2) vs. #11 Michigan (10-2) - Who wouldn't love watching this matchup? The Mountain West didn't get in on conference strength (#7 behind the ACC), but their Champion TCU was ranked high enough in the final DPS standings at #11. Improved Michigan and Shoelace get a chance to get back to National prominence a year or two before their time. 

#7 Alabama (11-1) vs. #10 Oklahoma (9-3) - Alabama's 3-point home loss to LSU was costly, as they now have to earn their way back to the championship game the hard way. Oklahoma finished with a thud but remained very high in the DPS standings due to their tough schedule and the strength of the #1 ranked Big XII Conference. I don't make this stuff up, it was what the numbers said.

#8 Boise State (11-1) vs. #9 Stanford (11-1) - Another fantastic (and meaningful) matchup, with two future NFL quarterbacks battling for something real. Could MWC runner-up Boise State really play with the big boys? Their only loss was a 1-point loss to MWC Champ and playoff qualifier TCU. With this system there is no need for conjecture, if Kellen Moore and his Boise State teammates are good enough their play will speak for itself. Andrew Luck gets the big stage to showcase his ability to carry his team through the 2nd season.

I don't know about you, but these meaningful matchups are something I'd MUCH rather see than the parade of exhibition games that are coming our way. There isn't a lot of agreement from SEC country right now, but that's ok...even SEC fans know it's the right thing to do. In the mean time I'll continue dreaming that someday we'll get the post-season I've been waiting for for forty-something years.