Perhaps it's time to get off the back of the BCS.

Perhaps it's not.

The whole idea of the Bowl Championship Series was to have an official national championship game while keeping the tradition of the bowl games intact.

Problem is, the BCShas failed on both counts.

In a college football season such as this one, in which teams fell out of the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in the BCSratings almost weekly, it's impossible to determine which two teams belong in the national title game by season's end.

Yes, we have a national championship game.

No, we do not have a

legitimate national championship game.Any system that tells a team that it can win every game on its schedule and still have no chance of winning the national championship — a.k.a. Hawaii — is far from a viable system.As for the tradition of the bowl season, whatever happened to the plethora of New Year's Day bowl games? Only six bowl games are now played on Jan. 1 when the bulk of bowl games used to be played on that day.If the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl are clunkers on New Year's Day, Joe Football Fan has no other options in terms of pigskin viewing that day.The Fiesta Bowl is being played Jan. 2. The Orange Bowl doesn't take place until Jan. 3.Why?Bigger question:Why is the International Bowl — pitting 7-5 Rutgers vs. 7-5 Ball State — being played Jan. 5? Then there's the GMAC Bowl, a compelling matchup involving 9-4 Tulsa and 8-4 Bowling Green, slated for Jan. 6.What is going on here?When all that smoke is cleared, the national title game finally takes place Jan. 7. Shouldn't we be paying attention to college basketball by then?An eight-team playoff would certainly improve this situation, but would not completely solve it.The top eight teams in the APTop 25 poll are Ohio State, LSU, Oklahoma, Georgia, Virginia Tech, USC, Wisconsin and Kansas.That would provide first-round playoff games pitting Ohio State against Kansas, LSUagainst Wisconsin, Oklahoma against USC and Georgia against Virginia Tech.Not bad, right?Bad.Undefeated Hawaii would still be excluded. West Virginia, Arizona State, Brigham Young and Boise State also would be on the outside looking in with two losses. Six of the eight teams that would be in the playoffs also have two losses.By virtue of its loss to Pitt, West Virginia would have dropped from qualifying for the BCSChampionship Game to out of an eight-team playoff scenario completely.Oh, what to do.There is no real solution here. Even the NCAABasketball Tournament, which includes 65 teams, fields complaints about who should be in and who should be out.Hmmm, a 64-team football tournament would take six weeks to complete — if we begin play the week after Thanksgiving.Let's not even go there.John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle.