How an El Camino Proves the SEC is Wrong

There has been a chill in the air here in Gainesville this weekend and it feels like college football weather in Georgia. The worst part is we are still a month away from when teams can start practicing. However, we can always talk and write about it.

There are few times in which I will disagree with Mike Slive and what he does as the commissioner for the Southeastern Conference. He has done an outstanding job for the league and increased its popularity in the country to epic proportions. That being said, he along with the other SEC coaches, are being selfish in how college football should decide its version of the Final Four for the inevitable football playoff system starting in 2014.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive

The SEC wants to have the top four teams, regardless of conference, to be represented in the proposed Final Four instead of each conference having a place at the table. Slive said time and time again at the SEC meetings in Destin, Fla. this week, "One. Two. Three. Four." It comes down to a money thing--as most things in life usually do. The more teams each conference can get into the proposed Final Four, the more money said conference can make.

What will ensue if the SEC gets its way no more solves the problem than the current BCS and bowl system as it stands. Side note: Big 10 commissioner Jim Delaney and myself are the only two people on God's great earth that like the current system, albeit for differing reasons; that point of view is a whole new can of worms not to be opened at this time.

The arguments will move from which teams are in the Final Four instead of the current bickering of which two teams "deserve" to be in the BCS National Championship game. Fans under the SEC's plan are subjected to a mysterious poll full of secretive voters, who undoubtedly have their own agendas.

A replica of my two-toned beauty

Take a 1987 Chevrolet El Camino for example, the epitome of fine car--or truck, you decide. To me it is a true testament to American engineering. To others, it is one of the most heinous and forgettable heaps of car ever created. I have a special connection to these creations. It was my first four-wheeled, motorized freedom maker.

I would rank an El Camino much higher on a Top 10 of cars than a Ferrari fanatic or Lamborghini lover, every year no matter the capabilities of the other machines because of my emotional investment. Much like a coaches or writers do every week in the polls when they vote for college football's top 25.

Imagine the uproar when a one-loss Alabama or Georgia does not make the Final Four and an undefeated Boise State and Ohio State does because coaches team up against the SEC. God save us all...

It is pretty simple, prove you are the best team in your conference and you are in. With defined prerequisites, the "Who deserves to be where" argument is dead.

Take the playoff as a step in the right direction. Sure we would all love an eight-game playoff, but this is progress, which is all subject to change when the four Super Conferences emerge in five years, rendering this argument null and void.