I've heard some media representatives, particularly on the radio, refer to the Big 12 Champ[ionship Game and the SEC Championship Game yesterday as de facto semi-final games for the BCS National Championship. The Florida-Alabama winner was going to the BCS game, because if Alabama won, they were already #1 in the BCS, so the game was just a mere formality for them. If Florida won, their late season surge and win over #1 Alabama should be enough to place them in the championship game. If Oklahoma won the Big 12 Championship Game, they would play in the BCS championship game; if they lost, texas was waiting in the wings to take their place.

Regardless of how you view the tie-breaker issue in the Big 12, does this make the Big 12 and SEC Championship Games semi-finals for the national title? Can we advance from here and say having conference championship games for all BCS conferences would be the first round in a national playoff? Arguably, the Pac-10 full-season round-robin schedule does determine a true conference champion, so they don't need a championship game. The Big Ten lacks a championship game, and with 11 conference teams, doesn't have the 12th member needed to hold a championship game. Perhaps an agreement could be made to consider Notre Dame the unofficial 12th member of the Big Ten, and in seasons when they are actually a decent team (minimum 10 wins), they could play the Big Ten Champion as a 1st round game. Right now, the Big Ten and Notre Dame are obviously not playing at an elite level, so this would only be an issue in the future.

Having conference championship games serve as the beginning of a playoff makes sense, and defuses any complaints about a playoff devaluing the regular season.

I'm still of the opinion that a full-blown 8 or 16 team playoff is not needed yet, and still in favor of a hybrid of the current system with a +1 format, because the reality is that the debate over who the national champion is usually comes down to two teams in years when there is a controversy, and a plus-one format would solve that controversy. It was nice, though, being able to sit down and watch two conference championship games which would decide who plays for the national title this season.