BCS title game? Yeah, but ...

The BCS championship game is required viewing for a reporter who covers college football for a major metropolitan newspaper.

It’s just one of the things you have to do if you hold the job. If you’re a dentist, you have to fill the teeth of the patient who ordered extra onions on his sandwich at lunch.

And if you’re a college football writer, you have to watch Ohio State and LSU. But to be honest, I couldn’t care less about this game, because it will be impossible to identify a true national champion after it’s over. If you’re a plumber, you have to fix the pipes that carry dirty water out of a house as well as the pipes that carry clean water into a house.

Here are some things I care about more than the BCS title game as the long bowl season mercifully comes to an end:

• UNC’s recruiting. So far, North Carolina has a small and relatively unimpressive class. But coach Butch Davis closed his first Tar Heel class with a remarkable February surge, and it will be interesting to see if he can repeat that feat.
  

• Mike Glennon. N.C. State’s incoming freshman quarterback was named his team’s most valuable player Saturday in the Under Armour all-star game in Orlando. Chantilly, Va., native Glennon may be good enough to play immediately for a team that needs better quarterback play. Clemson-bound defensive end DaQuan Bowers also will be a player to watch after he was named his team’s MVP in the same game.
  

• Bobby Bowden. Florida State’s legendary coach might be tarnishing his legacy as he tries to stay ahead of buddy Joe Paterno atop the career victories list. Now the team’s academic scandal joins “Free Shoes University” as a blemish on Bowden’s record. And the school’s goofy succession plan for offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher to take over when Bowden retires concentrates far too much power in the hands of an assistant.

• The ACC championship game. A crowd of more than 50,000 for Wake Forest and Connecticut in the Meineke Car Care Bowl provided more evidence that Charlotte has a shot at getting this game on a permanent basis after it plays host in 2010 and 2011. Tampa gets it first in 2008 and 2009, but it’s difficult to imagine the game thriving in Florida after Jacksonville’s attendance decline from 2005-07.As for Ohio State-LSU, it’s been proposed that college administrators would be forced to implement a playoff if we damage the BCS TV ratings by watching something else tonight. If only I could.
  

– Ken Tysiac