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A college football playoff has been a no-brainer for too long a time, and now, finally, the powers-that-be that rule the game do not have to hear cries that they have no brains.
Never mind that President Obama wanted the death of the BCS, that Congress threatened to get involved.
You wanted it.
You wanted something more than a national championship of political football, played on a computer and in the ivory towers of prejudicial coaches and desperate athletic directors foaming at the mouth to fill their coffers.
You wanted a national champion decided on the field.
You wanted January Madness for college football the same way March Madness has driven you mad during the breathless road to the college basketball national championship.
Finally, money talks, BCS walks. Finally, a four-team playoff to decide an unblemished national champion begnning in 2014.
If the Alabama-LSU rematch was the straw that broke the camel’s back, then let the camel rest in peace.
Thankfully, there never again will be an undefeated Auburn team on the outside looking in on an Oklahoma-USC national championship game. There never again will be one trophy for LSU and one for USC.
Hallelujah.
It has worked so well for college hoops that 68 teams get invitations to The Dance.
“The great thing is they will follow the basketball lead and as fans accept it, they’ll tweak the number of teams,” sports analyst Danny Sheridan told The Post.
What the powers-that-be should do, now that they have grown cerebrums, is adopt the NFL model. Maybe play the semifinal two weeks before the championship game and hype it for two weeks just as the NFL does for the Super Bowl.
In the meantime, the makeup of the selection committee could be problematic.
“Are we talking about 25 people with agendas? Are we talking about 10 people with agendas?” Sheridan asks. “It’s gonna be a bone of contention.”
In the interests of fairness, it will be imperative that neutral parties are selected for the committee. Someone without any ties or association to a particular school. No one currently serving as television analyst.
The exclusionary BCS format generated $165 million.
“This new format will generate $400 [million] to 500 million,” Sheridan said.
College football fans are richer today, too. “I never thought I’d live to see a college football playoff,” Sheridan said.
Bowling for dollars, and the BCS strikes out. January Madness at last for college football.
steve.serby@nypost.com