Is there anyone out there that doesn't believe Utah is going to a BCS bowl? Or that Colorado State is headed for the New Mexico Bowl?

Of course not. But here, we're acting on the assumption that many coaches in the USA Today Poll will go brain-dead and vote Boise State over Utah, or that aliens will hijack Harris Poll voters and force them to do the same. Or that these computer polls will somehow break down and place a team from a weaker conference ahead of Utah.

The Las Vegas Bowl will make "an economic" decision to take No. 3 BYU over No. 2 TCU, and the Frogs are certainly headed to San Diego.

Right?

But we can't say it. Nobody can plan for it. Nobody's releasing tickets, and the majority of folks are postponing making hotel reservations and other plans until they "know for sure." Las Vegas won't act until the BCS holds its press conference on Dec. 7.

The BCS "released" BYU from consideration earlier this week. But, so what.

How dumb is all this?

Welcome to NCAA college football, the only sport in the NCAA that doesn't have a national tournament or a playoff to determine a championship.

Welcome to a place where the majority of university presidents, who run the NCAA, have allowed the BCS (six major conferences) to hijack the sport, often citing the integrity of the bowl system and the impact of those communities and their time-honored tradition as a major reason to avoid a playoff.

Sounds good. Unless you're on the organizing committee of the Las Vegas, Poinsettia or one of those other non-BCS bowls, laboring hard in a difficult financial climate, trying to meet budgets and set annual plans in motion.

In that case, you're just hosed for another week.

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E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com