One of the bogus reasons offered by college presidents for defending the BCS status quo is that college football's regular season is unique, meaningful and worth protecting.

One question: Why?

Where are all the wonderful regular-season games that are worth protecting?

College football is down this season. The elite teams aren't dominant, and we have less reason than ever to believe that there is a clear gap between the best traditional powers and the best non-traditional powers, like TCU, Cincinnati and Boise State.

Instead of viewing the final weeks of the regular season as a natural ramp toward what would be a fascinating eight-team playoff, we are watching mediocre, mostly meaningless games, most of which will be meaningless in determining the national champion.

I really want to love college football. With the current setup, the only game that really matters to me is a national championship game that won't necessarily determine a true national champion.

College football is superior to the NFL in terms of pageantry and emotion, but the NFL offers meaningful games with clear-cut ramifications. I'd rather attend a college game, but I'd rather watch an NFL game.

I'm at Kinnick Stadium today, covering the Gophers-Iowa game. I"ll be at the Vikings game tomorrow. I'll be on Sunday Sports Talk, 10-noon on Sunday.

You can follow me on Twitter at SouhanStrib. I'll use Twitter during the Gophers game today.

Sid has written that Tim Brewster will return no matter what happens today. I don't believe that. Do you really think if the Gophers lost 55-0 today that Joel Maturi would bring Brewster back? And if he did, would that be justifiable?