(NOTE:  This was written late Saturday night.  As of 5:00pm central on 12/6, Iowa in the Orange Bowl has picked up a lot of steam)

College football reminded me of a lot of things this weekend, just as it did last weekend and the entire month of November to boot.

First, we don’t need a college football playoff.  Had Iowa gone undefeated, it would not have played for the national championship, given the way things played out.  And while I would have been disappointed, I still would not change my opinion on this matter.  I’d rather see things revert to the old system, the back room brokering way of things.  One reason is because I am a little old school, another is that system would favor Iowa more often than not.

We had ‘playoffs’ everywhere you looked.  Take a look at what we saw from the Six BCS leagues this year:

Big Ten:  Iowa vs Ohio State on November 14th for the league’s automatic BCS bid and a trip to the Rose Bowl.  Ohio State won 27-24 in overtime.

Pac 10:  Oregon vs Oregon State on December 3rd for the league’s automatic BCS bid and a trip to the Rose Bowl.  Oregon came from behind (double digits) to win 37-33.

Big East:  Pittsburgh vs Cincinnati on December 5th for the league’s automatic BCS bid.  Each team scored a touchdown in the last two minutes of the game, Pitt missed their extra point and Cincy marched down the field and won the game with less than a minute to play after being down 21 points earlier in the game, 45-44.

Folks, those are the three leagues that DON’T have a conference championship game!

Big 12:  Texas vs Nebraska on December 5th, a national championship bid on the line for Texas and a BCS bid on the line for Nebraska.  Nebraska kicks a 42 yard field goal with less than two minutes to play to take the lead, then Texas boots a 46 yard field goal with no time on the clock to win the game and play for the national title.

ACC:  Clemson vs Georgia Tech on December 5th for the automatic BCS bid.  Clemson trailed by 13 in the fourth quarter only to take a 34-33 lead with 6:11 to go.  Tech then goes on a 13 play, 86 yard drive, eats up 4:51 of the clock to win the game 39-34.

SEC: #1 Florida vs #2 Alabama with a national title game bid on the line, loser to the Sugar. ‘Bama held the ball for nearly 40 minutes and piled up 490 yards against the Florida defense that was ranked No. 1 in the country, allowing less than 10 points and about 233 yards per game.

It  can’t possibly get much better than that, can it?  Not in my book, and again, I realize I am in the minority on this opinion.

Now what?

For some reason, many national pundits chose this day to talk about and write about how much they want to see Boise State vs TCU in the Fiesta Bowl, almost trying to will that to happen.

I could be wrong on this, and I have been wrong before and will be again, but I will believe that ca-ca when I see it.

Nobody wants that game outside of those two schools and some pie in the sky national media members.  We had that game last year, and it was called the Poinsettia Bowl and it drew 34,268 fans.

The Fiesta is not going to pass on a Big Ten team with the #2 replacement pick, and I have heard nothing nor have I seen anything to make me stray from my strong feeling that the Fiesta is going to take Iowa.  I believe the Orange will take TCU to go up against Tech, and the Fiesta will come back and select Boise State to match up against the Hawkeyes, leaving the Sugar Bowl with Florida and Cincinnati.

So here is what I think we will see come the BCS selection show Sunday night at 7pm central:

BCS Title Game:  Alabama vs Texas

Rose Bowl: Ohio State vs Oregon

Fiesta Bowl: Iowa vs Boise State

Orange Bowl:  Georgia Tech vs TCU

Sugar Bowl:  Florida vs Cincinnati

The folks at The Longest Yard Sports Bar in Valley Junction have invited me out for a BCS Selection Show watch party, and I will be there at 5:30.  I will make sure we have the Iowa-Iowa State wrestling meet on some of the TV’s as well, so I hope to see some of you out there.

Also, once Iowa’s bowl destination is official, we will begin taking orders for our bowl charter flights at www.hawkeyesportstravel.com.  Go there now to get signed up for our email list so you remain up to date, up to the second, with what we will have to offer.