Look, I like college football the way it is. Except for this hangup about playing almost all the games on Shabbat, of course. The regular-season rivalries have value precisely because there's no playoff. Leave aside the money-grubbing college presidents and the uncertainty-phobic sports punditocracy.
The same people complaining about the computers today were complaining about the polls yesterday. The BCS was instituted in part to keep repeats of a 13-0 BYU squad beating a 6-5 Michigan team and ending up #1. I remember when Virginia (yes, Virginia) started out ranked #15 and kept winning while teams just ahead of it kept losing in the right order. By midyear, U.Va. was ridiculously over-ranked at #1, accepted a Sugar Bowl bid, and then promptly lost 3 out of 4 games and became the post-child for over-eager bowl committees.
This year's Ohio St.-Michigan game proves the point. Michigan knew what it needed to do - win - and it couldn't do it. If everyone had gone into the game knowing that Michigan knew what it needed to do - keep it close - would the game have mattered as much? The question answers itself. In fact, while Ann Arbor and Columbus would have been just as enthralled, the rest of the country would only have cared if it were a blowout, knocking one of the teams out of title contention. In other words, the game would only have been interesting at a national level if it were unwatchable. Instead, we got the next round of the playoff Saturday night, known as USC-Notre Dame.
As for those who want the OhioSt.-Michigan rematch, comparing to Ali-Frazier, consider that such a three-match actually could happen if the two teams in question were from the SEC or the Big 12.
The only team with a beef right now might be Florida. But not a single poll and not a single computer has them ahead of USC, and only two computers (and no polls) have them ahead of Michigan. And one more late, cheap touchdown against FSU wouldn'thave made any difference. (Poor Urban Meyer had this happen to his 12-0 Utah team, too, but did anyone really think Utah belonged in the title game any more than Boise St. does this year?)
Everyone knows the rules - if you lose, lose early, not to your big rival on the last week of the season. So relax, people, and just enjoy the season and the games for what they are.