The Big Ten: For an above .500 record, wins in their three biggest games and a nice collection of scalps (Miami, LSU, Georgia Tech and Oregon).  Even the three losses were all very respectful, and if we're being honest, I don't think anyone but the most hardcore of college football fans even realize that Minnesota and Iowa State played, let alone that the Golden Gophers lost.  Anyone who watched the Rose had to come away impressed by Pryor and the Buckeyes, enough so that if they're in the national title discussion late next season, the wounds of the Florida and LSU blowouts will be mostly healed in the public discourse.

The State of Idaho: Boise State knocks out another undefeated season and improves to 2-0 in BCS games while Idaho wins the most entertaining bowl game of the entire postseason, knocking off Bowling Green at the buzzer in a wild and rollicking Humanitarian Bowl.  It's looking like the Broncos' game with Virginia Tech will be Labor Day night, an early   

LEFEVOUR!: I think it's best if you sing the name like you would "MacGruber," with the pride of Central Michigan going out on top, rallying his Chippewas to a GMAC Bowl win over the mighty Trojans of Troy.  Who knows if we'll be seeing Dan play on Sundays or not, but here's some fun facts about the sheer absurdity of his career, courtesy of our good friends at Wikipedia:

He currently holds Mid American Conference records for career completions, attempts, passing yards, passing touchdowns, total touchdowns, and total offensive yards. LeFevour is the only player in NCAA history with over 12,000 passing yards and 2,500 rushing yards and currently sits 2nd all time in total offensive yards. He also holds the FBS record for total touchdowns with 150.

LeFevour!

Navy: At some point, people are going to stop treating Navy like some sort of special needs program and realize they're a top forty-level football team year in and year out.  Certainly Gary Pinkel should have some newfound respect for them after Ken Niumatalolo and Ricky Dobbs ran over, around and through the Tigers for the better part of sixty minutes.  Next year's regular season victims?  Maryland, Wake Forest, Duke and hopefully not Notre Dame again?

Nebraska: Even with Ndamukong Suh departing for the greener (as in cash money) pastures of the NFL, the Cornhuskers are surely going to be a preseason Big XII favorite and national title darkhorse to start 2010.  With the majority of that defense coming back and the offense showing signs of not being completely incompetent in the rout of Arizona, things are looking good for Bo Pelini.  Idaho, Texas, Missouri, Colorado and Kansas all travel to Lincoln next season, with the only road tests being an early jaunt to Seattle to face Washington and a trip to Stillwater to take on T. Boone's Cowboys.  If Pelini really wants to make sure there is preseason buzz and an offense capable of putting up points, perhaps he'd be interested in raising the Jolly Roger and calling a mad captain up north to become offensive coordinator...

Ruffin McNeill: Speaking of the Captain, interim coach McNeill benefited from ESPN's strict pro-James family and anti-Leach/truth policy during the Alamo Bowl, as Mike Patrick used every opportunity to trumpet him for the open position.  It was also really interesting and not at all a matter of bias and agenda that even though every written report from the game states there was no shortage of pro-Leach signs and anti-James booing, that wasn't ever really shown on the teevee.  But my, that Craig James, what a hero.

The Mountain West: 4-1 in bowl games, with the only loss being TCU's close call in the Fiesta.  The wins were legit, too, with BYU embarrassing Oregon State, Utah beating Cal and Air Force frazzling Case Keenum into his worst performance of the year.  (I'm not sure Wyoming is getting a lot of street cred for the win over Fresno State, but respect to the good folks in Laramie anyway.) 

Truck-sticking running backs: Mark Ingram won the BCS Title, but Toby Gerhart didn't lose any respect from college football fans as both put on a show of plowing through linebackers and defensive backs for most of their games.  Do you know anyone who doesn't like Ingram or Gerhart?  They both seem like class acts who just enjoy running over defenders and scoring touchdowns.  Gerhart is probably moving on, but we get at least another year of Ingram and that ridiculous Alabama run game.

Tim Tebow: He needed a great performance through the air to intrigue the NFL scouts, and that's exactly what the Cincinnati Bearcats let him do for the better part of the Sugar Bowl.  I just can't imagine Jacksonville taking him all the way up at eleven, but crazier things have happened and the franchise is desperate to get any sort of interest in their product.

Ricky Stanzi/America: I love how Stanzi dives right into as many USA! clichés as he can think of once he starts down that path, although he's way too self-aware of what's going on to truly to be a Real American.  Congrats to Stanzi and the Hawkeyes for one helluva of a throwing-touchdowns-to-both-teams 11-2 season.

Jimmy Clausen: Because after watching an assortment of quarterbacks deliver the ball behind, above and in the ground in front of their receivers, it really made you appreciate how f-ing good Clausen was this year.  68% completion percentage and four picks, half of which weren't even his fault.  It's going to be hilarious (sad) in eight years when some teenager is putting together his first fantasy football team and drafts Clausen, Golden Tate, Michael Floyd and Kyle Rudolph.  If that teenager likes to research, he will find out that all of these players not only went to Notre Dame, but also were on the same team together.  He will then look up their record and see that over two season these four fantasy titans combined to go...13-12.  I'll miss you, Jimmy.

LOSERS

The PAC-10: Save for the LA schools dominating the eastern seaboard (USC over BC, UCLA over Temple), the conference that went undefeated in bowl play last year stumbled to a 2-5 record this time around, and a lot of them weren't close.  Not really an omen for any sort of seachange, just a bad round of bowl games for a conference that typically does well in December and January.

Case Keenum/Jevan Snead: Keenum had his worst game of the season by far, but that should only slightly ding his draft status compared to Jevan Snead, whose three pick and one fumble Cotton Bowl was just par for his 2009 season.  Snead would have to be insane or in possession of a neuralyzer to depart after a season where he had a 10:18 TD:INT ratio in SEC/bowl games and took the art of the pick six to another level, so of course, he's declaring for the draft.

The Big East: In their only two high profile games, West Virginia lost in Bobby Bowden's farewell and the Bearcats were eviscerated by Urban Meyer's Gators.  Sure, Pitt, Rutgers and South Florida all won, but the idea that an undefeated Big East team wasn't in the class of the SEC or other "power" conferences wasn't hurt by the New Year's night result in New Orleans.  Pitt could maybe carry that banner next year with the Dion Lewis Heisman Hype train that will be rolling (deservingly) all summer, but they'd have to survive a beefy non-conference schedule of Miami (FL), Clemson and Notre Dame, along with trips to South Florida, Connecticut and Cincinnati.    

College Football Fans: (Now I'm going to rant in essay form.)

There are a lot of things to hate about college football, including but not limited to the fact that the "title game" was played on January 7, which seems bad until you realize that next year it's actually later.  Texas proved that you could play a non-conference schedule that would make Notre Dame's basketball team ashamed and still be ushered into the BCS title game just because you're a traditional power.  There is no reason for a traditional power to play an intriguing non-conference game other than a competitive spirit or pride.  God bless the ones (Oklahoma, Miami, Ohio State, the majority of the PAC-10) that do, but it could slow or stop at any time.

The main problem is that it almost physically pains me to think about the mind-melting awesomeness that a playoff would bring.  Can you imagine the Gators traveling to Columbus in early December for a quarterfinal game, or the Trojans marching into Austin for a 4/5 game?  And for the people who say a playoff is too difficult, a) You're a quitter and loser and b) Fine, let's just go back to the old way.  Was it perfect?  No, it certainly was miles from that, but at least there was no pretense that there was some sort of order to it like the BCS pretends.

The fact of the matter is that putting a playoff together cannot possibly be that hard.  They do it for nearly every sport at nearly every level in the NCAA, including football.  Enablers like Stewart Mandel will cry for a plus-one and tell you to buy their book so they can explain how impossible it is, but I think it's a bullshit argument because all the university presidents care about is money, and no one's made them a sweet playoff payout offer.  The academic argument is crap, the "too many games" argument is crap, anything that doesn't come down to the fact that there are a lot of people making money off of this situation that don't want to see it changed is crap.  Don't tell me that it makes the regular season matter more because that is total bullshit, too.  How many of Boise State's regular season games mattered?  None of them, not a single one.  And if you have a playoff, then suddenly, the games of the number eight team long eliminated from national title contention have new meaning.  You make the regular season more interesting that way.

Therefore, all you need to do is give the college presidents a dollar figure that drops their jaw and they'll kick the BCS to the curb because all they care about is money, except for the Big Ten*.  What would the bidding war for a college football playoff look like?  ESPN, Fox, CBS and the new NBC/Comcast/Versus conglomerate would fall over themselves trying to get the rights.  If we as American sports fans who love college football can't find a way to jettison the BCS before their contract is up - and no one on Capitol Hill on in the White House can help kill it in a more timely fashion because they're busy "fighting terrorism" and "trying to resuscitate the economy" - then we can all band together to just patiently wait for that first amazing weekend of opening round games.  

*The only thing the Big Ten and Jim Delany care about is the Rose Bowl parade, and then money, in that order.  The game is cool, too - they guess? - but they're more interested in the parade beforehand.

So here's what we do: we rent a suite or two in a nice hotel somewhere, like they did in Frost/Nixon when they were getting ready for the big interview.  We get some TV people to crunch the numbers, all of the networks can send their wunderkind with a laptop and bag of money to figure out scheduling, conference pay-outs and any other gory details.  Then you get a bunch of smart college football people and they figure out the best plan, including how many teams, where the games are played, how they're selected and so on and so forth.  (Let's play the title game in the Rose Bowl, that seems nice.)  We'll start with Pete Thamel, Dan Wetzel, Matt Hinton, Spencer Hall, Andy Staples, Bruce Feldman, Pat Forde and some other people I'm definitely forgetting right now but who could be there.  InsideTheBCS and Mandel are invited, but they will sit in a separate room with Drew Magary just berating them for the entirety of the negotiations.  You establish whatever size tournament you want (preferably eight, I'd be okay with sixteen or four) and you keep any bowl with any sort of historical context, and you mix them in with the tournament games just like this.  

I'm sick of this, you're sick of this, and it's killing the sport slowly.  There's no reason we should all be sad at the start of every December because the postseason is starting.  (And if you're not sad, read this.)  The postseason is supposed to be exciting!  So this is what I beg of you: Don't say a playoff is too hard, or it isn't needed, or that things are okay as they are.  That's accepting failure, and we as college football fans deserve better.  So that's why we're "Losers" of this bowl season, and every bowl season hence that doesn't also include a playoff.

Now - that being said - is everyone else ready for the Blue-Gold Game?