Guilt by association

The Associated Press has taken steps to disassociate itself from college football's Bowl Championship Series.

If only the rest of us could follow suit.

The Associated Press this week told the BCS to stop using the AP college football poll to decide which teams will play for the national championship and in the major bowl games.

"BCS conveys the impression," the AP said in a strongly worded letter to the BCS, "that AP condones or otherwise participates in the BCS system. Furthermore, to the extent that the public does not fully understand the relationship between BCS and AP, any animosity toward BCS may get transferred to AP."

Ironically, the BCS decided last year to rely more heavily on the AP poll in order to fix the BCS. Fans couldn't help noticing the little fact that last year's AP No. 1 University of Southern California was not invited by the BCS to play for the national championship. So this year, the AP poll was given more weight.

We said then, and believe just as much today, that attempting to fix the BCS, by whatever means, is a waste of time. Dump it. It's a clubby, unfair and inefficient means of trying to crown a national champion.

Give us a playoff, for goodness' sake! Every other sport at every other level settles things on the field or court. Why can't the nation's biggest colleges do so?

Auburn University, and perhaps California, Boise State and Utah, should have had a shot at playing for the national championship. What a terrible shame to deny those great young athletes that opportunity - played out on a national stage.

The Auburn Tigers, especially, deserved a shot. They survived a rugged Southeastern Conference to become 12-0 - certainly no worse than the 12-0 records of national championship invitees Oklahoma and the University of Southern California.

You can see why the Associated Press would say that its involuntary association with the BCS "has harmed AP's reputation."