Sorry Shanoff, apparently Alabama isn't the second best team in the country...

Award Utah a fourth of the national title. This is not 2004 Utah, a team that turned a fluffy schedule and a victory over a palsied Pitt team into an undefeated season. Utah beat 5 ranked teams and embarrassed the SEC West champion. They did not lose a game this season. They had a defense that dealt out harm to all they faced and boasted one of the more accurate quarterbacks in the nation. They beat people with spread-option tactics executed with wishbone brutality.

If you want more from a team, you're either unreasonable, a total flaming asshole, or both. In lieu of a playoff, we have to resort to fractions, and to be fair: one fraction is just as good as another.

Therefore, the gold coin of the national title this year will be delved out in pieces of eight. Utes, you get at least a quarter for perfection achieved against quality. This may seem unfair, and it is, but in this most imperfect of college football worlds, unfair desserts are the only dish on the menu.

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Sometimes I'm glad I go to a weird art school instead of one with with Division I sports teams - or, even worse, a Big 10 school - because then I would almost certainly be forced to follow college sports for the rest of my life. Don't get me wrong, I think March Madness is the highlight of the sports year, but when you're so used to living and dying with every game/trade/draft pick of the Bears, Bulls, and Sox, sometimes it's nice to have a little distance. I think that's part of the reason I love the tournament so much: when you don't have a favorite team, you can't get hurt, so you just enjoy the games for what they are. I've always pulled for Illinois, but if they win or, eh, I don't really care. 

And college football....jesus. Could you imagine being a Utah fan this year? Or even a USC fan? It has to be fully maddening.

Tonight in college futbol: Ohio State gets embarrassed once again.

Thursday: a national title game that I'm actually sort of jazzed up for. If there isn't over 90 combined points, consider me disappointed.

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