Back in the day, the college football season would have ended yesterday.

Poof, and it was over.

It was the day of the Cotton, Sugar, Rose and Orange Bowls. Three of the big four were even played in the Cotton, Rose and Orange Bowls. People may get tired of hearing how the Rose is the “Granddaddy of them all,” but they still play the Rose Bowl in the Rose Bowl and that has to count for something.

Looking back, it seems like a better age. There were not 153 bowls and those they did play were yet to be corporatized. The closest thing was the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl, a nod to the Astrodome, where it was played. Even though rocket science and bluebonnets appear to have nothing in common.

The Sun Bowl had yet to become the John Hancock Bowl. The Fiesta had no relationship with Tostitos and was just another bowl, kind of like the Gator Bowl.

It was a simpler time.

But for all the nostalgia looking back creates, this is what people forget: there was not only no Bowl Championship Series, but no vehicle at all by which college football’s top two teams were determined. Indeed, there was nothing at all but conference’s with tie-ins to the bowls.

The Big Eight to the Orange, the Big Ten and Pac-10 to the Rose, the SEC to the Sugar and the Southwestern to the Cotton.

If you were No. 2 in the Big Eight and Ohio State was No. 1 in the Big Ten and a so-so Washington team finished tied atop the Pac-10 with No. 3 Southern Cal without ever having played the Trojans and USC had been to the Rose Bowl last, you were out of luck. Because Washington had no chance against Ohio State, so you were stuck at No. 2. Or so it seemed.

It was one of the idiocies of the (lack of a) system. But another one was how all hell would break loose anyway, like the night No. 2 Oklahoma had no reason to believe it could win a national championship, but low and behold an earlier-in-the-day upset put the Sooners in the driver’s seat, only for a 33-7 Razorback stunner to leave the media and coaches to choose amongst Texas, Notre Dame, Alabama and Arkansas, each having finished the season with an 11-1 record.

Notre Dame got the nod from both polls, having crushed Texas 38-10 at the Cotton Bowl. The Irish woke up New Year’s morning ranked No. 5. Alabama woke up ranked No. 3 and crushed Ohio State 35-6. But beating the No. 8 Buckeyes wasn’t enough.

Just crazy.

If ever the bowl season went like that day again, not only would we not want a playoff, we wouldn’t even want a BCS. Because if it’s all about the story, there’s no better story than a day Nos. 1, 2 and 4 (Texas, Oklahoma and Michigan) all lost, leaving Nos. 3, 5 and 6 (Alabama, Notre Dame and Arkansas) in the driver’s seat.

But who can count on that?

The BCS is an improvement, and just as long as the Associated Press voters remain independent of the BCS, there’s always the chance of craziness ensuing.

n OU played in the national title game against LSU despite not being ranked No. 1 or No. 2 by either the AP or coaches poll.

n After LSU won the 2004 Sugar Bowl over OU, it was USC the AP crowned its national champion and nobody with any sense of the history of the game considers it watered down.

A playoff?

Well, good luck.

You’re going to need it.

And while the good old days remain good and old, they’re also antiquated in a way nobody would want to reproduce. As for maybe the best thing about the way everything’s decided now?

Today is Jan. 2 and there’s still a lot more football to play.

Clay Horning

366-3526

cfhorning@normantranscript.com