An election year is a helpful reminder to sportswriters like me, busy decrying how college football picks a national champion. We should look at how we go about picking a president. Instead of watching another mismatch for the BCS Champonship, as sportswriters did, political reporters were busy last night trying to figure out if Hillary Clinton's glimmer of emotion was genuine--and if so, would it then help or hurt her. That may not make the BCS process any more palatable, but at least it puts it in perspective.

Ohio State didn't embarrass itself, as it did last year. Still, LSU's 38-24 victory did bear a certain resemblance to Florida's in 2007 and revealed the Buckeyes as, most simply, overmatched by another quicker, more dynamic team from the SEC. Hey, I warned the BCS earlier this season that if it hoped to perpetuate its ludicrous system it had to find a way to downgrade the "Not-So-Big" Ten champion, almost always Ohio State these days. The BCS Championship game can't be the inevitable reward for a team that plows through a weak conference (especially toward the bottom) and beats up a few MAC teams for good measure. The inevitable result of this free pass to the Big Ten is a snooze of a title game. And while the game may not have been an embarassment, Ohio State is surely mortified that is is now 0-9 in bowl games against the SEC dating back to the 1978 Sugar Bowl. The Buckeyes have graciously spread it around, losing over that streak to seven different SEC teams. Could Vanderbilt be next?

I've got nothing against the Big Ten. Some of my best friends, including my wife, went to Big Ten schools and one of my favorite cousins, an Ohio State alum, even flew down to Arizona for the game. It's got some great academic institutions, which should mean a lot more in this world than the calibre of its football. But the calibre of its football has become decidedly second rank, certainly lagging behind the SEC and the Pac 10 and probably behind the Big 12 too. Ohio State's loss concluded a 3-5 bowl season for the Big Ten, which is actually an improvement over last year's dismal 2-5 effort. The SEC finished 7-2, the Pac 10 4-2 and the Big 12 5-3. If you check out the Big Ten message boards and websites, they're filled with excuses about the post-season failures, like how poor Michigan State finished eighth in the Big Ten and drew Boston College, runner-up in the ACC. But nobody seems anxious to discount Purdue's bowl victory over mid-major Central Michigan.

This second successive BCS championship and Ohio State dud was compounded by a whole slate of disappointing BCS bowl games, including two routs (USC over Illinois and Georgia over Hawaii) and two other games that were entertaining, but hardly compelling (Kansas over Virginia Tech and West Virginia over Oklahoma). USC, Georgia, West Virginia, Missouri and Kansas fans are left wondering why their two loss seasons (and in Kansas' case, a single loss to powerful Missouri) aren't equal to LSU's claim to the national title. AP voters missed a good chance to signal their disdain for the system when they voted LSU number one.

But a more important message may have been sent by University of Georgia president Michael Adams. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed that Adams, who chairs the NCAA executive committee, has written a letter to NCAA president Myles Brand throwing his support behind an eight-game January playoff, starting with the four major bowls--Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, Rose--as quarterfinals. Adams says his decision to support a playoff didn't stem from disappointment with Georgia's post-season fate--they wound up ranked number two in the A.P. poll--but rather from the string of disappointing games that reflected badly on the process. "I'm just convinced that [the BCS system is] not working and that it's not going to work and it's fundamentally flawed," he told the AJC.

That's something every sportswriter has been saying for years, but it should carry a lot more weight coming from the upper echelons of the NCAA. Meanwhile, as we await the fallout, we can go back to worrying about the Buckeyes showing up in the title game again next year. On that front, there is at least a little good news. Next season, in its third game, neatly tucked between those big home contests against Youngstown State, Ohio University and the Trojans of Troy University, Ohio State will make an excursion west to play the real Trojans, the University of Southern California. If Ohio State still gets to the BCS Championship next year, at least it will have earned the trip.