The Folly of College Football

Hey, remember when the college football season used to end on New Year's Day?

It was always, "So-and-so earned a New Year's Day bowl bid!"

Occasionally, you'd get the odd Jan. 2 game, if Jan. 1 fell on a Sunday or something, but you get the general idea.

When Florida and Ohio State square off tonight in the Tostitos BCS Mythical National Championship Game (Fox, 8 p.m.), it will be taking place over a month since the Gators last played and some 50 days after the Buckeyes last took the field. Hell, why not play the game in June at this rate?

(Of course, if Ohio State played in a real conference like the SEC, in which they had to play a conference title game, the Buckeyes wouldn't be so rusty. I'm just sayin'.)

So, this game will be after the NFL playoffs have already begun, after college basketball has started to play its conference games. If the BCS people had waited just a wee bit longer, they could have had the game coincide with when pitchers and catchers report to spring training.

All of this helps kill the argument about having a playoff system, because what in the world were these guys doing over the past month? Studying?

And if Florida wins tonight (heaven forbid), does Boise State get its shot at No. 1? (Of course not).

OK, so I'm a little pissy because I'm mathematically eliminated from my football pool (not that I gamble or anything, because gambling is wrong), but honestly, who really likes the current system college football has in place (besides the bowls themselves?)

SIX MILLION DOLLAR NEWS: I'd make a little fun of the news that NBC is doing a remake of "The Bionic Woman," except that David Eick is behind the project. When Eick helped launch the remake of "Battlestar Galactica," no doubt there were a few snickers here and there, and look at how well that turned out.

However, the actual writing is being done by Laeta Kalogridis, who did the movie "Alexander" (the crappy Oliver Stone version that knocked out the production of the really great version written by Chris McQuarrie) and the TV series "Birds of Prey" (any "Birds of Prey" series in any genre not written by Gail Simone is just pointless.) So, buyer beware.

TONIGHT'S BEST BETS: If you aren't interested in the mythical national championship (I call it mythical because some teams are automatically excluded from it, no matter how well they do, unlike college basketball, for example), you do have options.

CBS has all-new episodes of its comedy lineup, beginning with "How I Met Your Mother" at 8 p.m., and follows with a new episode of "CSI: Miami" at 10 p.m.

ABC has the reality drivel "Wife Swap" and "Supernanny" from 8-10 p.m., followed by a new episode of "What About Brian?" NBC offers "Deal or No Deal" at 8 p.m., followed by the final two reruns of "Heroes" from 9-11 p.m., in case you need a refresher.

And, since I promoted "Star Trek: Voyager" last week, Sci-Fi is beginning to run episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise" beginning at 7 p.m. with the pilot, "Broken Bow."