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As for Michigan "having their chance", and it not being fair to OSU..... It happens in the NFL all the time! teams beat other teams during the regular season, and then lose to them in the play-offs.
So yes, I do think it would be fair if Michigan played and beat OSU.
You're comparing apples and oranges here. The NFL has a playoff, the NCAA does not. All the NFL teams play a 16 game season, NCAA teams play 11, 12, or 13 game seasons before their bowl game (no consistency). The NFL structures their playoffs by conference, and if you win your conference you go to the championship game; the NCAA has no such criteria. In the NFL, the teams with the best records in their conferences are not guarenteed to go to the Super Bowl to play each other, they have to earn it against the other playoff teams. And how ridiculous would it be if the NFL had a poll to decide who goes to the super bowl!
The only instance where your argument holds water is if the winner in one NFL CONFERENCE played the winner of the other CONFERENCE in the NFL regular season and they end up meeting in the Super Bowl to determine the champion.
Imo, as long as there are polls the system is going to be flawed. NCAA basketball has it right with sending out bids for the NCAA tournament.
All that needs to happen with NCAA football is for a committee to meet at the end of the season to determine who should be ranked 1-4. 1 plays 4. 2 plays 3. The winners play in a championship game. If they want to use the current polling BCS system calculations they can. 1v4 and 2v3 would still play in the respective BCS bowl games as well, so there'd be no disruption to the revenue machine.
The championship game could happen 2 weeks after these bowl games (like the NFL does with the Super bowl after the conference championships) to allow the student athletes to go back to school a bit, and still have time to prepare for the final game and allow for the appropriate allotment of tickets to be sold to those wanting to attend the game from the repective schools.
The other thing is that the BCS championship game should be promoted throughout the year in the same manner as the super bowl. That way, if you can get at-large tickets to attend the game, a college football fan can plan accordingly. The final game could even be held the Saturday before the NFL conference chapionship games to boost the ratings. People can plan parties around it, yadda yadda...