THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Jan. 8, 2014

After the most entertaining Bowl Championship Series football games in recent memory, with each coming down to the final moments, that will be the heavy question among fans wondering just how this whole playoff system will work starting next year.

WITH A blowout in the championship game between Alabama and Notre Dame in 2013, it was a breath of fresh air that this year's title game between Florida State and Auburn came down to the final seconds.

But in watching the other four games, it shouldn't have been much of a surprise.

In the Rose Bowl between Stanford and Michigan State, the game wasn't decided until a stop on fourth down by the Michigan State defense. The Fiesta Bowl, which turned into a offensive shootout, could have gone either way, but UCF made more plays than Baylor that night.

In what could have been considered slight upsets, Oklahoma beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and Ohio State lost to Clemson in the Orange Bowl.

Both Alabama and Ohio State, who had national title dreams heading into the final weeks of the regular season, fell apart late in the season with the Crimson Tide losing to eventual runner-up Auburn, and Ohio State lost to Michigan State in the Big Ten championship game.

Those events left Auburn and Florida State as the two remaining teams.

That's right, Auburn, which escaped with a home win against the Washington State Cougars and Florida State, which whipped the Idaho Vandals in Tallahassee in November.

For a finale to the BCS however, the best two teams gave the best finish that the game could have imagined.

FOR THE first time in seven years, the Southeastern Conference failed to bring home the championship.

Florida, LSU, Alabama and Auburn had won championships in that span, something that as a conference is just an incredible run.

Maybe now there will be a little more parity in college football, but then again, if they've got the best teams, then that's fine.

It will be interesting to see just how the selection process works to get worthy teams into those final four spots.

Will teams get punished for playing some lower level schools?

Will the 70-0 or 66-point blowouts will become a thing of the past?

Watching those kind of games are almost unwatchable because the starters are often out by the third quarter and with no threat of a comeback, most fans might move on to another game.

For the first time in a while at least, you couldn't turn away from the final minutes of Monday's national title game.

It's still not the NCAA men's basketball tournament, but for a week, it sure seemed like it.

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]. Follow him on Twitter at JEPressSports.