A genius BCS solution?

I don't mean to pat myself on the back, but I couldn't sleep last night and in so doing, my mind was racing with thoughts and one of them allowed me to solve the BCS Bowl Games/Playoff Scenario.

You keep the Bowl Games intact. Keep the five biggies. Sugar, Rose, Orange, Fiesta, and Championship Game. Then you take the winners of those 5 games and put them in a playoff, giving the winner of the Championship Game a bye. The rankings are by adjusted seeding - so the two middle teams play each other and the team with the highest seed (not counting the #1 seed, winner of the Championship game) faces the lowest seed. Then the #1 team gets another bye while the two victors fight it out, with the winner getting a shot at the #1 seed. I know it's not perfect, with the #1 getting two byes after "winning" the championship game. But it would be sweet. Take a look.

USC def. Michigan (Rose)
Boise State def. Oklahoma (Fiesta)
LSU def. Notre Dame (Sugar)
Louisville def. Wake Forest (Orange)
Florida def. Ohio State (Championship)

Florida is #1
USC is top rank, Louisville is lowest
Boise State & LSU are the middle teams

Say USC wins and LSU wins. Then LSU wins again. Then it's LSU vs. Florida for the REAL title.

That's it. That's how it works.

Or, if you prefer, Florida and Ohio State never play each other. They just get a #1-#2 rank and they both get byes. Then it's the same setup with the other games: USC vs. Louisville, Boise State vs. LSU. Florida, being #1 gets the middle game winner (LSU) and Ohio State, being #2 faces the likely highest winner (USC) and then it's Florida vs. LSU and Ohio State vs. USC. Then, if Florida and Ohio State win those games, we have a REAL CHAMPIONSHIP.

Can you follow? I did. And it changed my life. Pass it along to the BCS. I only want $50,000 for rights.

Lancaster signs off. We'll miss ya.

The Jim Bowden Pipeline

The Cincinnati-D.C. train keeps a-chuggin' along. Brandon Claussen, oft-used pitcher for the Reds over the recent years went to our nation's capital. I liked the guy, he performed well sometimes and othertimes not so much. That's the case for every pitcher we've had lately, though they err on the negative side more often than not. I was just high on him because he came from the Yankees and as much as I hate the Bronx Bombers, they usually know what they're doing with pitching. And he was pretty decent with him. Oh well. So long, Pickle Man.