I've heard some lame arguments against a college football playoff, but this one might be the smelliest cow patty in the field. Columnist Mark Purdy of the San Jose Mercury News actually suggests that college presidents should think twice about a playoff because fans might not show up. He bases this on the fact that there were thousands of empty seats for many of this year's bowl games. Here's the problem with that: BOWL GAMES DON'T MATTER!

Of course no one shows up for the PapaJohns.com Bowl -- no one cares, aside from fans of the competing teams, and even then, they don't care all that much. Because there's nothing at stake!

The argument goes like this: a home-field playoff system would give home teams too much of a competitive advantage, but a neutral-site system would require too much traveling for fans whose teams advance. Even if you accept those feeble premises for the sake of argument, what about non-affiliated football fans? Are seats at the Final Four only filled by fans of the competing teams? You're telling me that a semifinal at the Rose Bowl wouldn't draw fans from across Southern California? Fiddle sticks.

Whatever happens at the BCS "championship" game, Utah should be the national champion. If not losing a game, having a strength of schedule better than a number of BCS league teams and absolutely dismantling the team that everyone considered the best in the nation for much of the season is not enough, then what is? Utah can never under any circumstances get a BCS championship invite?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, college football, fun as it is, is a joke.