BCS Fumbles It Away Again

PHOENIX — It was fourth-and-forever for bowl championship series officials and, once again, they punted.

College football leaders came to the Valley of the Sun to dig themselves out of a hole they seem to dig year after year after year.

Major conference commissioners had some hard decisions to make here.

With the BCS in tatters and its brand a national joke, officials huddled for hours as reporters tried not to knock over Oriental urns or disrupt the jet-set crowd at a posh spa and desert resort.

It was an interesting backdrop for a sport that has undergone its fair share of face lifts.

Here's what happened at BCS restoration VIII:

Instead of scrapping the BCS and announcing that college football was proceeding full-speed ahead toward a playoff (fat chance), or adopting the compromise "plus-one" playoff format that got ABC booted out of the process (except for the Rose Bowl), or leaders taking responsibility for the way their sport chooses its champions, BCS honchos tentatively opted for another bandage fix.

And we know how those have gone.

Needing a new standings formula to compensate for the defection of Associated Press, which after seven years in the BCS suddenly realized maybe it wasn't a good idea that its participating writers were making news, the BCS has apparently opted to replace the AP poll with another of willing participants.

Reaction: Good luck and see you all back here for another episode of BCS Extreme Makeover.

Twenty of college football's top minds gathered in one room and the best they could come up with was a replacement poll?

This ought to be a rip-roaring howl.

Over the next couple of weeks, the BCS bureau of recruitment is going to seek out former coaches, college players, administrators and sportswriters to see if they want to help in choosing a BCS champion.

Already, a football fan from Ohio has informed the BCS he would love to vote in the new poll.

"I don't think we're going to do a fan poll," BCS Coordinator Kevin Weiberg said.

How about letting a mascot weigh in? We're thinking Uga of Georgia

Actually, what the BCS has in mind is a panel that might include another Bulldog -- retired Georgia coach Vince Dooley, and more men of his ilk.

Oh, the pay is lousy and the perks are worse.

Disclaimer: Nothing is official on this, meaning there's still time for grown men to come to their senses.