The College Football Playoff You've Been Pining For? It's Happening Right Under Your Nose

For those of you that clamor for a nice, tidy bracket of four, eight, or 16 teams in the last week of November, pay attention. That method of eliminating teams from consideration of BCS Championship goodness has been transpiring over the past few weeks. Ohio State is veritably eliminated after their loss against Penn State two weeks ago, and potential BCS buster TCU was relegated to the NIT-ish land of second-tier bowl purgatory at the hands of the mighty Utah Utes. So instead of hoping for some panel to decide which three-loss team deserves to play for college football's highest prize, enjoy the quality slate of matchups this weekend that are sure to eliminate the championship hopes of teams you'd otherwise be ignoring.

Baylor at No. 5 Texas, 12 pm. The Longhorns have an outside shot of getting into the BCS title game, provided that three of the four teams in front of them AND Oklahoma shit the bed in the next three weeks...and Texas doesn't. A Big XII championship berth will be enough to reignite the argument of putting Texas in the Top Two, as that conference is giving the SEC a serious run for its money as The Best Conference In College Football.

Utah State at No. 9 Boise State, 2 pm. Boise State gets a BCS bowl game if they can stay in the Top 12 through their season's end. Boise State now sits at 8-0, and their offense has produced a quarterback (Kellen Moore) who has completed 70 percent of his passes, not to mention touchdown receptions to nine different receivers. I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't want to see the Broncos back in the BCS...except maybe...

No. 6 Oklahoma at Texas A&M, 3:30 pm. Oklahoma has their destiny in their own hands. If they can win here and beat Texas Tech next week and Oklahoma State the week after (and maybe Sam Bradford could run a three-minute mile and then cure AIDS) , they'll lead their division and punch their own ticket to the Big XII title game and smash Mizzou in the face again as they did in that game last year.

No. 1 Alabama at No. 15 LSU, 3:30 pm. Nobody's beating Alabama this year, so let's just move on.

No. 3 Penn State at Iowa, 3:30 pm. If Texas Tech can't run the table, and Penn State can, the Nittany Lions go to the BCS title game. Hate the Big Ten as much as you want, but the conference is good enough to warrant its undefeated champ playing for all the marbles. Oh, and let's give up the "get a championship game already" cries, for fuck's sake. The Big Ten has 11 teams, and no conference can have such a game without at least 12. End of discussion.

No. 4 Florida at Vanderbilt, 8 pm. Ayess! Eeeee! Seeee! Feutbawl! Some people are saying that Florida's the best team in America right now. And they might be, but Vandy has been beating good teams quite regularly this season. Wish they coulda played this game at noon, because I'll have to skip this one to watch...

No. 8 Oklahoma State at No. 2 Texas Tech, 8 pm. Most people are still waiting for the annual Red Raiders implosion, which is now about three weeks behind schedule. The fact of the matter is that a nontraditional power program reaching the BCS title game out of the Big XII might be the closest we can get to a Cinderella in our current format. Close enough for me, I say. Texas Tech is no Gonzaga, but they've been close enough for long enough that they're a fun dark horse to root for. If they can hold serve at home today, space on the bandwagon will be going fast.

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