The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT Oct. 22, 2011

If the time comes when all sports have their championship matchups settled by what a computer tells them, we could be in trouble.

And while the fans of the BCS find themselves tuning in to see just who is the alleged best team in the nation, at some point they've got to prove it - on the field.

JUST IMAGINE what a playoff system in Division I-A football could do for the college game.

Take the top eight teams or 12, whatever you've got to do to make it happen in a timely manner.

Since schools don't want to remain in their original conferences anymore, why not just take the top three schools from each region (north, south, east, west) and start the games on Dec. 12 and finish in January.

Regardless if schools agree to it, others will complain that there will never be enough teams.

The thing about that is once you break down those teams that believe they've got a shot, only a few really deserve to be in the mix.

Chances are, whoever comes out of the Southeastern Conference will be among the best teams in this mix, but with that conference continuing to grow, who knows.

WITH A ton of teams still dancing around just what conference they want to align themselves with, why not just form regional affiliations and be done with it?

No matter how much shuffling continues in college sports, a ton of other hurdles still need to be jumped through before a playoff system will become a reality in college football.

In an attempt to make a move toward the title game, Boise State was rumored to be soon joining the Big East in an attempt to strengthen its case for a big bowl game.

Imagine if either Lake City or Coeur d'Alene, in the attempt to find an eight-team league, ventured to Oregon or Montana to play three times a year, and have those teams jump on a bus to do the same.

That doesn’t need to happen because there is a playoff system in place for those deserving teams.

THAT IS what makes high school sports great.

The only reason we need a computer is to type in the results of what actually happened in the game.

Should high school teams enter any tournament knowing that the championship game was already determined, then some of the underdog stories could never have a chance of being told.

With this current system, we’ll never know for college football.

But at least we do in everything else.

Playoffs, they’re a fun time of the year, aren’t they?

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected].