But Swofford reminded me, it is about the marketplace where portfolios, procurements, bargains, transactions and contracts rule the day.

I've apparently mistakenly thought college football was all about effort, focus and acumen of dedicated athletes who toil, grind and labor on the practice field and on game-day Saturdays in storied stadiums across the land to win and defeat their opponents.

I've always believed, apparently in error, that for these players and teams chasing wins gets them somewhere, to a destination.

I've believed that competition means something and at the end of the day when Utah, BYU or Boise State has defeated everybody they have played, those bruises and blood put into that effort is rewarded with a chance at the biggest prize of all, a championship, just like every other NCAA sport, albeit soccer, baseball, basketball, tennis, golf or lacrosse.

Wrong.

Thanks to Swofford, we now perfectly and clearly know that a national championship isn't the end game, the measurement of success, the ultimate reward or goal of college football teams, who represent tax-fund receiving universities across the land.

It's the marketplace.

College football, says Swofford and the six BCS conferences that get automatic bids into the five BCS bowl games, is about a marketplace which places its highest priority on the collection of money, the distribution of said coin to a chosen few, those deemed to attract it more abundantly than others.

It's not about blocking, tackling, throwing and catching passes or undefeated teams.

It's about a marketplace that rewards TV ratings, geography of TV sets, media markets, traditional and historic bowl ties, bowl committees and their budgets, parades, revenue sharing, conference affiliation, pacts, contracts, pieces of paper, exchange of money and Nielsen Ratings.

Thanks, John.

You cleared it all up just dandy.

e-mail: harmon@desnews.com