Varsity Numbers: Playoffs, Fairness, And LSU

BATON ROUGE, LA - NOVEMBER 25: Wide receiver Russell Shepard #10 of the LSU Tigers celebrates with wide receiver Rueben Randle #2 after scoring on a nine-yard second quarter touchdown against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Tiger Stadium on November 25, 2011 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

This week's Varsity Numbers is up at Outsiders. As with a good portion of the week at SBN, the topic was playoffs, champions, opportunities, etc.

When college football began naming national champions, they did it with "best team of the season" in mind. The closer we get to a playoff, the further we get from that premise; it becomes more like "Best team in December and January." Maybe that's okay. It works for baseball and other sports, and hell, in our current structure, LSU could still lose to either Georgia, Alabama or Oklahoma State and still have been the "best team of the season" without winning the title. But it is worth noting that college football doesn't have to be like all of the other sports. It's okay to be different once in a while.

Now that I think about it, that was kind of an incomplete point. The best team in the regular season has finished short of the national title many times over history, and semi-frequently since the implementation of the BCS (2002 Miami, 2003 Oklahoma, 2006 Ohio State), but at least in those cases the second-best team won the title. Anyway, it was a fun week. For me, at least. Hopefully others enjoyed it too.