The 2008 college football season has been one for the ages, with a ton of extremely talented teams competing. However, even after the year is over, nobody will know who truly was the best team in the country. College football is one of the only sports that does not use the traditional playoff system to determine who the best team is. Instead, the regular season is used in determining who will play in the 34 bowl games.

Right now in the top 10 we have two teams who have not lost a game, seven teams that have lost only one game and one team that has lost twice. The dilemma for everyone has been trying to decide which two teams deserve to play for it all. Usually a key factor in determining who plays for the championship is who has the “best loss.” The new No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25, Florida, has one loss, which came against a very shaky Ole Miss team. However, they benefited greatly from playing No. 1 Alabama in the last week of the regular season, defeating them 31-20 in the Southeastern Conference championship game at a neutral site.

The gap between No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 3 Texas is very tight, both teams having very similar resumes. The only problem is that on Oct. 11, Texas defeated Oklahoma, 45-35, in Norman. If right now you are wondering why Oklahoma gets to play in the national championship game instead of Texas, you’re not alone.

We also have two teams in the top 10 sitting at 12-0; however, they have the misfortune of playing in a non-power conference. Utah, though, will get to play in a Bowl Championship Series game against Alabama because of a recent rule put into play. They are not happy being put there, because they think having an undefeated season should put them in the BCS title game. Boise State also has a legitimate argument at 12-0. In the 2007 Fiesta Bowl they shocked Oklahoma, 43-42, proving they can hang with the big dogs.

Of the one-loss teams, the University of Southern California has some problems because of the way they ran over so many great teams. Texas Tech was being talked about as a Cinderella team until they suffered their first loss, a 65-21 beat-down against Oklahoma. Now they do not even get a chance to play in a BCS game. Alabama had a perfect season until falling to Florida in the SEC Championship game. But of all the one-loss teams, they have the most impressive loss against the No. 1 team in the country; however, they will not be fighting for a national championship.

The best solution to this problem would be to create a playoff system like most other major sports. Taking the top 10 teams in AP polls and having a bracket similar to March Madness would be entertaining and would help determine who the best team is. This would help solve the problem because they would be settling it on the field instead of with computer polls. Even President-elect Barack Obama has gone on record as saying he would like a playoff system implemented in college football. This sport has always been extremely entertaining with one major downfall; however, if this problem is fixed it could become the most popular sport in modern culture.