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And, sure enough, as the weeks progressed, it seemed as though the impending doom that many predicted would be averted. Well, as Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast, my friend." Today, the college football world is in an uproar and the season has been thrown into utter chaos because of three little letters: BCS.

The BCS was created to help ensure that a consensus national champion was crowned and to avoid the proliferation of split national champions that used to be the norm in college football. And, for the most part, the idea has worked, although it hasn't been without its controversy. But, that all changed this year when USC, the number one rated team in the country by the coaches and the media, was shut out of the BCS championship game in favor of Oklahoma and LSU, the next two teams in both polls.

This has sparked a firestorm of controversy and debate that the BCS advocates were hoping to avoid when they devised the system and which many said was bound to happen sooner or later. For if USC beats Michigan in the Rose Bowl, the Trojans will have a legitimate claim to the National Championship, regardless of what happens in the Sugar Bowl. Therefore, the debate for which the BCS was created to eliminate will only intensify.

Which brings me back to things I'm grateful for. I'm grateful for the NCAA tournament. I'm grateful for the Final Four. I'm just grateful for the entire period known as March Madness, especially at a time like this. Unlike in college football, the regular season basketball polls are relatively meaningless. Computer rankings don't determine who plays in the championship game or not. The NCAA tournament doesn't care if Notre Dame had beaten Syracuse, then ... blah, blah, blah.

The polls are what they are: a tally of votes of the opinions of those who watch the games. They're for bragging rights as much as anything else. The goal of the regular season is to win enough games to qualify for the NCAA tournament. As long as your team makes the NCAA tournament, then they have just as much of a chance to become the national champion as the next team. The tournament is the great equalizer.

To win a championship, a team must win six-straight games, against six different teams, six different styles of play, and six different sets of athletes. The pressure to win is enormous because if you lose once, you're out. In the tournament, you don't get a month to scout your opponent, like the football teams do. For your first-round game, you get three or four days, tops, to determine who you're playing, where you're playing, and then practice and prepare for them. Then, if you're good enough to win that game, you have another day to prepare for your next opponent.

The great thing about the tournament is that everyone has to navigate the same road to win the championship. Everyone starts off on equal footing. Granted, the higher a team is ranked in the regular season, the easier their road is, theoretically. But, with a single-elimination tournament, nothing is set in stone. And at the end of the tournament, there's no debate as to which team is the champion.

Now, that's not to say the team that wins the tournament is necessarily the best team in the country that season. Everyone remembers that Villanova won the tournament in 1985, but most everyone would also admit that they were probably the weakest of the Final Four teams left. They just happened to get on a roll at the right time and carry it all the way through to the title.

The debate over crowning a champion notwithstanding, the NCAA tournament is also, arguably, the most exciting, and nerve-wracking, month in sports. In all the other major sports, with the notable exception of the NFL, the playoff system is devised such that, in order to advance, you must negotiate a system of rounds, whereby you advance by winning successive series.

So, if you lose one game, no big deal, there'll be another one. Not so in the Tournament. There, it's one and done. Win or go home. Thus, the action is heightened and the pressure is more intense, making each individual game that much more meaningful. That's why kids can be seen crying on the bench if their team is losing, because they know how hard they worked to get to that point, playing 30-some games, only to have it taken away from them in 40 minutes.

Depending on what transpires in the Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl in a few weeks, college football will be dogged this offseason by the controversy that not having a consensus champion creates. While some sort of playoff system is the most logical next step in the progression, that resolution seems years away. So, as I again swear off turkey and stuffing while I sit here making out my Christmas list, I am once again reminded why I love college basketball.

Thank God for March Madness. The NCAA is by no means a model organization, as it pertains to common sense and doing what's right. But, when it comes to college basketball, at least they got that right. And for that, I'm eternally grateful.

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