I honestly hate to do this.

At some point in the last few years, I started to develop a profound respect for Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville.  He seems like a decent guy and the longer he's stayed on the Plains, the better his teams have gotten.  His nickname is ridiculous, mind you.  Ok incredibly ridiculous.  But I do my best to ignore it and look at the man's resume.  Perhaps he's just lucky, or perhaps he's simply made some shrewd hires, but either way he's not only recruited and coached some fine teams, he's surrounded himself with quality coaches like former DC Gene Chizik and current OC Al Borges.

But my respect ends at this body of water: when coach starts opening his mouth.

For whatever reason, Tuberville has a way of saying some absurd things.  The latest foot-in-mouth moment---BCS whining.

His talking points:

1)The SEC is just too durn tough to make it to the BCS national championship game.

"I've about had it with this playoff deal," Tuberville said after a lengthy, emotional argument for a playoff. "We all understand in our conference how tough it is. In our conference, that's about the only chance we'd have to make it."

Riiiight, coach.  That's why since the inception of the BCS, Tennessee and LSU made and won title game appearances and Auburn finished its regular season undefeated in 2004.

If this rant is about 2004, coach should know better.  No. 1 USC was ridiculously gerrymandered out of a BCS title game appearance in 2003, in some measure due to one loss and No. 3 LSU's mathematical strength of schedule advantage.  Auburn was similarly squeezed in 2004, but they were nudged by a similarly undefeated Big 12 team: Oklahoma.  Point being, the SEC isn't uniquely victimized.  If any conference has room to complain, it's the Pac-10 with Oregon (twice) and California all surprising BCS non-invites.

2)Let's Do It For The Kids Playoff Straw Man

"There is no reason on this earth why we can't have the best four and then play one more," Tuberville said. "That's the legitimate thing to do. We added a BCS game -- for what in the world? -- I understand we're avoiding lawsuits and making money. But let's take care of the players."

Hey Tommy, here's a fun fact: some people like traditional bowl games.  In fact, lots of them do, otherwise NCAA presidents would have long ago made the move to switch to a playoff.  If it's such a popular idea with the public, the money would certainly be enough to entice them to change their minds on the matter.

I could also go on about the inherent and unreconcilable flaws of a one-and-done playoff, but that's for another day, another more lengthy entry.

3)Lies...lies... all lies!

"The problem we have is you have 120 universities that are I-A and probably 25 would say they have a legitimate chance each year," he said. "And you have presidents that for some reason look at it more as for the money than having a national championship on the field. They keep coming up with lame excuses about academics. Football players miss fewer classes than anybody...

..."Presidents take the money and go spend it, but they don't worry about the business of making it better," Tuberville said. "They keep coming up with excuses, yet we're playing [the national championship game] Jan. 8. It's hypocritical."

Yep, many are being hypocritical.  I can agree with the coach here.  University presidents are going to offer up any excuse possible not to create a playoff for college football.  Many of the reasons are probably bogus.  But they probably have some very valid reasons as well, of which the coach appears to have artfully dodged admitting during his rant.

The bottom line is not everybody wants a playoff.  A certain chunk of those people have silly reasons not to opt for that system.  But others have perfectly valid reasons, myself among them.  To engage in a silly rhetorical trick as Tuberville has where the university presidents and playoff opponents/bowl proponents are considered hypocritical or unconcerned about the players is asinine and outrageous.

We somehow have forgotten that just a few short years ago there was no BCS.  That college football's mythical national championship was just as mythical as it is today: chosen by voters after a full regular season and a host of December and January bowl games.

The only difference now is that TV money is behind a series of five games with one particular game pitting one versus two (chosen by an imperfect collection of polls) in a mythical championship game that isn't always the lone championship game, much to the dismay of LSU fans everywhere.

There were split titles then, there are split titles now and there will be disputed titles even if we go to a playoff as fans and pundits complain about this team or that team not making the cut.

Such is the history, such is the allure of college football, and hosting a playoff will never be that magic pill.

More targeted reforms should be aimed at the polling process.  Ballots shouldn't be accepted until midweek, after voters have enough time to catch up with the weekend's games.  The coaches poll should probably be disbanded, as many schools entrust voting to someone other than the coach, who is simply too occupied with team matters to keep track of more than a handful of schools.  Voters within the press should be given the tools to keep track of all the weekend's action, perhaps overnighted DVD's of relevant game videos, box scores and press clippings to have a better grasp of the action around the country.

There are ways to make the current process more fair, and more reliable.  Simply trying our hand at another unfair and tradition-changing system in cynicism and spite is the wrong way to go in my book.

For a different take on CTT's latest, visit HeismanPundit who notes that coach may have spoken too soon.  Virginia Tech in 2005, anyone?