Let me pick up the discussion once again about the NCAA possibly adopting a modified plus one playoffs and that we might even get it by 2011. Eeeeeasy NCAA … no need to be so hasty or to rush into anything. It’s not like anyone has a problem with the current BCS set up or is clamoring for a playoff or anything. Or has been for the last 20 years. And let me address the raps against a playoff: one, it will render the regular season meaningless. Wrong. Sure, the regular season means something now: but a playoff that determines a true national champion, on the field, means a whole lot more. Two, it would kill the bowl system as we know it. Fair enough … far be it for me to get behind anything that would jeopardize those 30 bowl games, 27 of which no one cares about anyway. So, I guess score one for that side. And finally, even if you have a final four, there will still be a debate over who you’re leaving out of the playoff. Fine, better to debate who’s number five every year, then who’s number one. Better to know that we’re getting the four best teams every year than praying that there are no more than two unbeatens or teams with one loss, and that if they did lose, they lost early enough to actually have a look at the title. Look, I get that university presidents aren’t about determining a champion on the field of play, but rather about getting paid. Fine: adopt the plus one: you’ll get paid even more and the rest of us will be one big step closer to what we want … a true national champion.

“I can tell you that I would like nothing better than to play USC for the title,” Miles said in a speech that radio station WWL made available on its Web site.

Playing to an audience largely populated by LSU fans, Miles saw an opening for a chance to plug the strength of the SEC, calling into question the strength of the Pac-10 Conference, which USC calls home.

“I can tell you this, that they have a much easier road to travel,” Miles said of the Trojans. “They’re going to play real knockdown drag-outs with UCLA and Washington, Cal-Berkley, Stanford — some real juggernauts — and they’re going to end up, it would be my guess, in some position so if they win a game or two, that they’ll end up in the title (game). I would like that path for us.

“I think the SEC provides much stiffer competition.”

This warrants some comment. First, to whom it may concern, it’s B-e-r-k-e-l-e-y.

Second, if that “juggernauts” comment is supposed to be sarcasm, it’s not working. For example, two of those four schools—which are apparently supposed to be so far from juggernauts that it’s humorous to call them juggernauts—frequently show up in the Preseason Top 25.

Third, if Mark Schlabach is even close to right, then USC’s schedule is significantly more difficult than LSU’s. (There’s a thing called out-of-conference competition, Les.)

Finally, ESPN’s Michael Smith, filling in on “Jim Rome is Burning” earlier today, had this to say …

Look, coach, nobody doubts that the SEC is going to be a murderer’s row this season, and I agree it’s the toughest conference in college football, and your school produces as many pro prospects as anybody, but you might want to focus on, I don’t know, winning said conference before you start calling out potential title game opponents. Never mind that under Pete Carroll USC is 4-0 against the SEC, by an average score of 42-12, or that they hung 50 on Arkansas, the team that last year won the SEC West—Les Miles’ own division. You say you want to play USC, Les? Thanks to your comments, I’m sure the feeling is now mutual.

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

UPDATE: Stewart Mandel has a nice piece on Lestergate, including an excellent treatment of the monomania behind the “onepeat” folks (and their ilk).