Tuesday Thoughts

A few thoughts from the last few days in sports:

BcS
The system which we use to determine who plays for college football's national championship is an absolute crock. I'll spare all my thoughts about how no one should be able to sit at home and watch everyone else put their seasons on the line and then end up in the championship game. I will say this: Two things are desperately needed for fairness in college football--1) Every conference's championship being decided in the same way (with a game or without one, but choose the way and make everyone follow it); and 2) a playoff of some kind. I'm not a big fan of people offering solutions without real suggestions, so, sometime between now and January 7, I'll detail what I think a playoff should look like.

NFL
There was a lot of interesting action in the NFL this weekend. Here are some thoughts on that action:

• As if there wasn't enough evidence, I believe Marvin Lewis has completely lost control of his team, and I'm also beginning to question whether he's a very good coach. He didn't challenge what to me looked like an obvious touchdown that was called incomplete. In fairness to him, I don't know whether he had any challenges left. The Bengals are, again, a laughable franchise.
• There is no huge conspiracy theory, but the NFL is dying for the Patriots to go undefeated. No way holding should have been called. And no way Jabar Gaffney caught that ball with both feet in bounds. Oh, and Rodney Harrison is a jackass. On the other side of the field, the Ravens are just a mess. Can someone get Bart Scott some anger management counseling for Christmas? And Brian Billick kissing at Harrison? Come on, coach. Grow up.
• The Browns really got hosed. I don't remember a more clear case of a guy getting forced out of bounds in the NFL, and the poor official just missed it. After the long review, the referee went and talked to the official who missed the call before announcing that the pass was indeed incomplete. I think he said, "Dude, you're going to get fined, and you probably need to enter the witness protection program, because you're going to have some fired up Browns' fans coming after you for that one."

Baseball's Winter Meetings
The John Santana Derby is officially underway, and I think it's a one-horse race, although I'd really like to see the Angels put something together starting with Jered Weaver and Brandon Wood. If all the Twins are waiting on is for the Red Sox to include both Lester and Ellsbury, I don't know what the Sox are waiting on. To be able to add Santana and basically not take anyone away from a team that won it all this year is an easy decision. I do think there are some concerns, and legitimate ones, about Santana's recent workload and health. But he's still Johan, and several years of him at 60-75% is really, really good.