On Sunday, Dec. 4, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) released their official top 25 standings and matchups for all 35 bowl games. The rankings, conference championship results and several other factors compiled the final order and determined the teams who will play in a BCS bowl. This included the two who will play for the 2012 National Championship at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.

Despite No. 3 Oklahoma State’s performance in their domination over rival Oklahoma and their resulting Big XII championship, their first since 1948, it was not enough to sway the human components of the BCS, the USA Today coaches’ and Harris polls. For the first time ever, two teams from the same conference will play each other for a national championship. No. 1 Louisiana State against No. 2 Alabama.

Elsewhere, the Sugar Bowl features No. 11 Virginia Tech and No. 13 Michigan. Virginia Tech lost 38-10 to Clemson in the Atlantic Coastal Conference title game. Michigan sat at home while in-state rival Michigan State played Wisconsin in the inaugural Big Ten title game. Kansas State, Boise State and even Michigan State were better choices for the game. But because teams often do not lose ground in the polls when they do not play, the Wolverines stood firm while the Spartans slid. Bittersweet picks for this season’s Sugar Bowl.

The bowl picks cleared me of all doubt that the Football Bowl Subdivision of Division 1 needs a playoff system like every other college sport in every other division. Their bowl selection process also needs someone to step in and say “Here’s who’s playing. You don’t like it, tough.”

FBS football is the only college sport without a championship tournament or playoff. First and second in the BCS polls play for the title. All other teams play or sit at home on the whim of the games’ committees. Every bowl game has a group of people to determine who they want the most out of all the available teams. BCS bowls get first pick, followed by everyone else. Bowl games with traditional prestige, such as the Cotton Bowl, have more weight to convince a higher-ranked BCS snub than the Independence Bowl or the Music City Bowl.

However, the main factor with many prominent bowls comes down to the teams that travel better or are closer to the site of the game. Which school has more fans that will show up? While deserving conference runners-up should beat out other teams, money should not be the determining factor that manipulates who flies and who lies.

For the national title game, there are 59 coaches who get votes in the USA Today poll. Alabama coach Nick Saban and LSU coach Les Miles both get votes. Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy does not. My suggestion is to use the AP poll for that third rather than half of the coaches to determine the entire picture.

California-Los Angeles (UCLA), despite a 6-7 record, will play Illinois in a bowl game. Western Kentucky, who finished 7-5, will stay home for the bowl season. UCLA played in the Pac-12 title game, so my theory is that the NCAA saw no reason to bounce the runner up from an AQ league championship. WKU finished second in the Sun Belt Conference in their third year as an FBS team. Yet despite their turnaround from a 0-4 start, will have to wait until next September for another game.

The BCS gives automatic BCS bowl bids to the champions of the following conferences (2011 champions): the Big Ten (Wisconsin), the Big XII (Oklahoma State), the Big East (West Virginia), the ACC (Clemson), the SEC (LSU) and the Pac-12 (Oregon). While most of these teams deserve a place in the BCS bowls, West Virginia finished No. 23 in the polls with a 9-3 mark, well behind 10+ win teams. Yet because of their championship, they pushed out other BCS potentials with better credentials.

Non-AQ leagues can only send their champion to a BCS game if they finish in the top 12 outright or in the top 16 and ahead of other champions of AQ leagues. One surprising stat is that non-AQ teams are 5-2 in the BCS, all against AQ league champions.

Overall, the system of giving bowls the power to choose who they want to play is bogus. They choose based on their own interests rather than on who deserves the better games more. The process to determine the national champion needs to switch to a playoff bracket like every other college sport and division. Even if it were only four teams to begin with, that would be a satisfactory start to let deserving teams prove why they deserve to play for the crystal football.