College football fans all over the country (if the country were only the state of Georgia) are crying for a Division 1 college football playoff.  Of course Georgia is pleading for a playoff because they weren't included in this season's national championship game.  If they were included, it is extremely doubtful that anyone would hear a word out of UGA president, Michael Adams.  But he has now taken it upon himself to push for this playoff, saying that the BCS has become a beauty contest and that it is in the best interest of college football's integrity to implement a playoff system.

But here's your problem with a playoff system:  a playoff does not crown the best team in the country.  It crowns the hottest team in the country.

Think about it.  Midway through UGA's schedule this year, did anyone view UGA as one of the top teams in the country?  The correct answer is no.  They were 4-2 at this point with a loss to South Carolina and a drubbing at the hands of Tennessee.  But then the Dawgs got hot...really hot.  And they ran off six straight wins against the likes of national powerhouses Vanderbilt, Troy (as in Alabama, not Troy as in Southern Cal), and Kentucky.  They were then pitted against a wildly overmatched Hawaii team that stood very little chance at even putting up a fight against a mainland team from a BCS conference.

Or how about we look at the other white hot team in college football:  USC.  Six games into their schedule, not a single person with any knowledge of college football thought of the Trojans when thinking about the national title picture, and rightfully so.  They had lost to a 41 point underdog in Stanford...AT the Coliseum.  And to add insult to injury, they lost again three weeks later to Oregon in Eugene.  But the Men of Troy turned it around, running off four straight against less than spectacular opponents and got a Rose Bowl bid to play Illinois, another team that had no business being in a BCS game.

There is no doubt that if there was a playoff, UGA and USC would be the odds on favorites to win it all.  But neither of these teams was the best team in the nation.  They were just the hottest teams in the nation.

Despite the national hatred for the BCS, it does its job.  Since its inception, there has been only two instances where the team emerging as the winner could legitimately be disputed.  In 1998, Tennessee was the best team out there.  The same can be said for Florida State (1999), Oklahoma (2000), Miami (2001), Ohio State (2002), USC (2005), Florida (2006), and LSU (2007).  Things got a little messy in 2003 and 2004, but for the most part, the BCS has gotten it right.

And while some teams obviously did not belong in the extraneous bowl games (i.e. Hawaii, Illinois, and Kansas), the BCS got the championship game right.  It may not have been the most exciting game of the season, but Ohio State and LSU were the best teams when looking at the entire body of work, not just the second half of the year (or in USC's situation, the last four weeks of the year).

The only allure to a playoff is some of the matchups that can be worked out.  Take this year:  if you took the BCS conference champions, and two remaining highest ranked teams from the BCS rankings, the first round would look like this:

1. Ohio State vs. 8. West Virginia
4. Oklahoma vs. 5. UGA
3. Virginia Tech vs. 6. Missouri
2. LSU vs. 7. USC

There are some monster matchups there with the potential for even bigger second round matchups.  But you also run the risk of a team running the table that is not the best team in the country.  That is what the purpose of the postseason is:  to determine the undisputed best team in the country.

When it comes down to it, a playoff just doesn't do that.