Sugar Ain't So Sweet

It used to be that a trip to the Sugar Bowl meant that Georgia had a successful year.

And while a 10-2 record, a BCS ranking and a trip to New Orleans this January are nothing to sneeze at, going to the Sugar Bowl this year serves as a reminder as to just how flawed this BCS system is.

Of course, as a UGA grad, I'm biased toward Georgia and I'm disappointed that the Dogs didn't move up in the BCS poll after two teams ahead of them, West Virginia and Missouri, both lost over the weekend. By simple logic, Georgia should have advanced up two places from No. 4 to No. 2, just as Ohio State did to move into the No. 1 spot.

But in this impure and idiotic system, LSU moved to the No. 2 spot instead, and Georgia fell to No. 5 despite having not played over the weekend.

This isn't meant as a slight to LSU, which deserves a shot at the title as SEC champion. My complaint is why have the BCS rankings in the first place if they are just going to be arbitrarily changed.

It's time for college football to wake up and join the rest of the NCAA team sports in a playoff system. Ohio State, Georgia, LSU, USC, Hawaii, Oklahoma and others all have legitimate claims to being in the title game, and an eight-team playoff system makes perfect sense.

The BCS games don't kick off for another month. An eight-team playoff system would not only fit in nicely over the next few weekends in December, considering there's nothing else going on during the month, would actually be a ratings winner a' la the NCAA basketball tournament. Instead of meaningless games being televised like the Humanitarian Bowl - pretty much of interest only to the two teams playing in it - fans would be able to watch games with meaning and significance.

That doesn't mean kill off the small bowls. You can keep those games around for all those 7-4 schools that don't qualify for the BCS playoffs.

But what it would mean is that a playoff system would allow one school to say it is the legitimate No. 1 team in the country. By keeping this flawed system, whichever team wins the matchup between LSU and Ohio State may claim to be the champion, but it will be a tainted and disputed title.

MONDAY'S BEST BETS: Enjoy the first-run episodes while you can. They are pretty much drying up after this week. This isn't really related to the writers' strike: after all, with the holiday season upon us, the networks would pretty much be heading into reruns right now anyway. What the WGA strike means is that come January, the new episodes we are waiting for won't be ready.

Already, the herd of new episodes has been culled, as most of the stuff tonight are reruns, with the notable exception of NBC.

The ever-improving "Chuck" (NBC, 8 p.m.) leads things off, followed by the half-season finale of "Heroes" at 9 p.m. "Life" is getting a Monday tryout at 10 p.m., possibly because of "Journeyman's" low ratings. "Life" is Part 1 of a two-parter that concludes in the show's normal Wednesday timeslot. "Journeyman" returns with a new episode in its normal timeslot next week.

"K-Ville" (Fox, 9 p.m.) winds down, while "Samantha Who?" (ABC, 9 p.m.) and "Notes From The Underbelly" (ABC, 9:30 p.m.) are also new and are followed by a new "October Road."

If you missed Part 1 of "Tin Man," a modern twist to "The Wizard of Oz," fear not. Sci-Fi is rerunning Part 1 tonight at 7 p.m., followed by the debut of Part 2 at 9 p.m.