by Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports. This column is a Tour De Force, although I am sure Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe and, (in some respects) Big 10 Commissioner Jim Delany, disagree.  See, if you want to win me over on the Playoff System, facts, realism and logic (and not the hyperbole that a Playoff system results in a more “true” champion) is the way to do it.

That said, this paragraph, made me pucker up a little until I realized that Bobby Petrino is the UA football Coach and the Mississippi Coach isn’t.

Conference expansion is about to forever alter college athletics: destroying traditions, hammering taxpayers and increasing competition. It will leave once-major programs out of the loop, consolidate power and extend the gap between haves and have nots – even within leagues such as the Big Ten.

And, wannabe shock jock sportswriter Paul Finebaum isn’t helping my heartburn with his usual drivel about Arkansas and USC-E being a “waste of space” for the SEC. It’s agenda-driven and historically inaccurate, and for those reasons, I hesitate to link  it.  But, I do so to point out that, particularly with regard to football–by the standard Finebaum applies to Arkansas and USC-E, Tennessee (his alma mater) should be considered a waste of space, too. 

Then again, we are talking about a guy who rose to SEC sportswriter/radio guy prominence with a schtick that would make “Michael From Stuttgart” (AKA blowhard radio guy who calls into 15 sports radio shows a day and does everything he can to offend anyone with which he speaks) blush.

But, I digress.  My point is, I can be sold on the Playoff System if people start speaking Wetzel’s language and the SEC makes sure that Arkansas at least has the opportunity to be a “have” instead of a “have not”.