I am one of the eight people in America who do not work for a bowl game and yet do not want a college football playoff tournament at the top level of the sport. (And, please, believe this, a lot of the agitation for it is coming from sportswriters who have seen, maybe, three college games this decade, but who really want Another Big Event at which to preen their feathers.) I take this position because I think the bowl games are huge, noisy, tacky public celebrations of American pop culture kitsch and that we should encourage as many of those as possible. (They are even big enough, loud enough, tacky enough, and kitschy enough to survive the fact that corporations have draped themselves all over the productions.) I'd much rather celebrate my birthday every year watching the Independence Bowl than watching the Quarterfinal Round Of The Southeast Regional bracket or something. I do miss the involvement of the Poulan Weedeater people, though.

That said, this is a particularly lame defense of the status quo. Boise State was eliminated from championship play somewhere around Columbus Day  -- in fact, it was probably eliminated in spring drills -- and the fact that the system has burped up a proper title matchup is probably an accident.

(Cincinnati's no-show against Florida doesn't make the case for BSU or TCU any stronger, alas.)

It's not easy to see how Texas wins this thing. Alabama may not have their own House Of Spears, and local politics may become a distraction, but Nebraska's defense provided a pretty good template on how to handle Colt McCoy. Bump his receivers around and make him move around more than he wants to do so. The Tide has held opposing teams to a 29 percent third-down conversion rate this season, which means that Mark Ingram gets to punish tired defenses for an awfully long time down the stretch.

(Can I just say that the fact that Texas has a quarterback named Colt McCoy from Tuscola who went to Jim Ned High School --- or perhaps was coached by someone named Jim Ned High School -- makes me glad I spent so much time reading Dan Jenkins?)

I've been on the Ingram bandwagon since he put 190 yards on a good Mississippi defense back in October. (Ole Miss surrendered only one TD itself that day.) And now he's playing for something, too. I think it's a good game for three-and-a-half quarters and then Ingram grinds out a putaway TD or two. Make it Alabama, 27-17.