The Best Evidence The BCS is BS

Forget every other reason for why the NCAA should abolish the BCS and create a tournament of some kind.

Forget the fact that it is fashionable to argue for a tournament.  Forget the fact that president-elect Barack Obama is on his presidential-sized soapbox campaigning for a tournament.  Forget the argument about the supposed "extra money" the NCAA would make off a different post-season format.

The Utah Utes have provided probably the best reason to bash those BCS computers with a Louisville Slugger than anyone else.

Their 31-17 thrashing of once #1 Alabama, the same Crimson Tide from the SEC that held the top spot in the BCS rankings for five weeks, was Utah's second BCS title since the system was updated in 2004.  A team from what many college football experts consider the lowly Mountain West Conference dismantled a team considered the best team in the country for more than a month, and the best or second best team in the supposed best conference in America.  

And in the short history of the new, supposedly perfected BCS system, Utah's success begs the unsolvable question: 

Where does Utah rank among the college football elite? 

The question can't be answered without a tournament, unless you use the conjecture which has already poisoned the sport.

Here are the facts:  Utah has now won a Fiesta Bowl and a Sugar Bowl in the last four seasons, and in the process has bludgeoned teams from power conferences each time.  In 2005, the Utes blasted Big East Champion Pittsburgh 35-7, and this year, in a more impressive victory, beat the mighty 'Tide by two touchdowns.  Their win over Alabama was by a wider margin than Florida's win over Nick Saban's club in the SEC title game.  All this for a team from the lowly Mountain West.

They were undefeated, the only team in the FBS (which stands for Football Bowl Subdivision, what was formerly known as Division 1-A), and yet they cannot win the National Title.  The BCS big wigs will tell us it's because they come from a conference where they're not tested like SEC or Big 12 teams are tested week in and week out.  That reasoning is probably right.  But the Utes can't help the conference they're in, or the fact that they had to play the Wyoming's and the New Mexico's of the world.  They beat four teams once or currently ranked in the top 25 (Oregon State, TCU, BYU and now Alabama), and have the resume to at least compete for a shot at the title.  

Sometimes teams that aren't from a power conference really are that good.  It shouldn't be possible that only teams from the big six have a shot at winning it all.

The only way to solve this mess is a playoff.