Playoffs?!? Yes, we're talking about playoffs

In what has become a rite of passage, the Bowl Championship Series once again complicated the national championship picture this winter.

The only two undefeated BCS conference champions played in the BCS National Championship Game. No. 1 Auburn defeated no. 2 Oregon 22-19, giving the Tigers their first undisputed national championship.

But that's the problem: This national title is disputed.

The undefeated TCU Horned Frogs have just as much of a claim to the national championship as Auburn does. TCU answered plenty of critics by defeating the Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl Game, shutting down arguably the hottest team in the nation in doing so.

Logic dictates Auburn and TCU should clash to determine the country's true no. 1 team. The BCS doesn't operate under rules of logic, however.

The clamoring for a playoff system seems to grow louder every year, and for those who fancy themselves fans of logic, I have the system for you.

My playoff system consists of a 10-team field, with the BCS standings remaining in place. The BCS rankings would be used as a seeding system, however, in place of the way it is used today.

BCS conference champions would earn an automatic bid into the 10-team field, should they finish in the top 20 of the final BCS standings. Call it the UConn Rule, as the Huskies would be the only team in the last four years to miss the Division I college football playoffs as a BCS conference champion.

Following the letter of the current rule on the books, any team, conference champion or not, to finish in the top four of the final BCS standings would earn an automatic bid into the playoffs.

Teams in the non-automatic qualifying conferences (i.e. WAC, Mountain West, etc.) to finish in the top 12 of the final BCS standings would also earn an automatic bid into the 10-team playoff field.

Should the final at-large bid come down to a non-conference champion from a BCS conference ranked in the top four of the final BCS standings, and a non-AQ conference team ranked 11th or 12th in the final BCS standings, the team ranked in the top four would earn the bid. This rule is in place due to the 2008 final standings, which would have seen the final at-large bid given to either fourth-ranked Alabama (a non-conference champion) and 11th-ranked TCU.

Once all the bids are sorted out, the 10 selected teams would be ranked in order of the final BCS standings. BCS conference champions ranked inside the top 10 are given precedence over at-large teams that did not win their conference. Teams to earn an automatic bid as a non-AQ school would be placed in order of their placement in the final BCS standings, in accordance with the other nine teams in the playoff.

Last year's field would have looked something like this:

1. Alabama (SEC champion)
2. Texas (Big 12 champion)
3. Cincinnati (Big East champion)
4. TCU (non-AQ auto bid)
5. Boise State (non-AQ auto bid)
6. Oregon (Pac-10 champion)
7. Ohio State (Big 10 champion)
8. Georgia Tech (ACC champion)
9. Florida (at-large bid)
10. Iowa (at-large bid)

The 2010 field would look like this:

1. Auburn (SEC champion)
2. Oregon (Pac-10 champion)
3. TCU (non-AQ auto bid)
4. Wisconsin (Big 10 champion)
5. Oklahoma (Big 12 champion)
6. Stanford (at-large bid)
7. Ohio State (at-large bid)
8. Arkansas (at-large bid)
9. Boise State (non-AQ auto bid)
10. Virginia Tech (ACC champion)

Still with me? Good. This is where it gets fun.

The field's four lowest seeds would be paired off in "play-in" games. The no. 7 team would host the no. 10 team at the no. 6 seed's campus, with the winner to play the tournament's no. 2 seed.

In 2010, Ohio State would host Virginia Tech in the first "play-in" game, with the winner to face no. 2 Oregon.

The nos. 8 and 9 seeds would clash in the same manner. This year, Arkansas would have hosted Boise State, with the winner to take on top-ranked Auburn in the quarterfinals.

All quarterfinal games would be played on the campus of the higher seed. Quarterfinal match-ups in 2010 would have been:

No. 8 Arkansas/No. 9 Boise State at No. 1 Auburn
No. 7 Ohio State/No. 10 Virginia Tech at No. 2 Oregon
No. 6 Stanford at No. 3 TCU
No. 5 Oklahoma at No. 4 Wisconsin

The tournament would be structured in such a way that, if higher seeds prevailed to the semifinals, the no. 1 team would play the no. 4 team, and the no. 3 team would play the no. 2 team.

To appease the money-hungry BCS boosters, both semifinal games would be played at existing BCS bowl sites, which could be rotated on a yearly basis. The BCS National Championship Game would exist as it does today, with the only caveat being we would have a true undisputed national champion.

Every complaint the BCS boosters have against a playoff is countered by my system.

They say: Too many games takes student-athletes away from the classroom.
My system says: The most games student-athletes would play in a bowl-type setting would be two - one more than they currently do.

They say: The regular season won't matter anymore.
My system says: Home-field advantage will be earned by a high placement in the final BCS standings, and a conference championship means an automatic bid in almost all instances.

They say: The bowl structure will be shattered.
My system says: The existing bowl structure is a joke as it is - there are way too many bowls. Cut down the number of bowls, and make the bowls important again. If a BCS bowl wants to invite the losers of the play-in games to play each other, they are more than welcome to do so.

They say (in private): We'll lose money.
My system says: You're nuts if you think you're losing money. Are you going to tell me people wouldn't pay to see BCS schools clash with other BCS schools, or the non-AQ schools so eloquently described by E. Gordon Gee as the "little sisters of the poor," to earn a trip to the biggest game of the year?

More often than not, the 10 teams in my playoff system would be the top 10 schools in the country. What more can we ask for than to see the 10 best teams in Division I college football battle it out to crown a true, undisputed national champion?

Division I (or, as it is now officially known, the Division I Bowl Subdivision) is the only NCAA-sanctioned intercollegiate sport that does not determine a national champion by means of a playoff system.

The NCAA knows full well how big March Madness gets every year. If they would open their minds, December Madness could be even more popular.