My fantasy football season was not all it was cracked up to be. As soon as my draft was over, Yahoo Fantasy Sports was quick to send me an email telling me I had the best draft of any of our 10 team-league,and assured me I would be the winner of the league and the playoffs. Instead, I finished with just three wins and at the bottom of the proverbial basement. But that wasn't the worst of it. The top four teams went into the fantasy football playoffs, while the next four went into a consolation playoff tournament. The number-nine team and yours truly were sent to football purgatory and told, "Maybe next year".

The problem with all this is I checked to see how the elite eight of our league were faring in their playoff match-ups and I came across an interesting revelation. The top four were playing their hearts out, checking injury reports and status updates. But the next four hadn't even set their lineups! Not even taken a moment to make sure they were capable of winning the consolation. I mean, that is worth something, right?

Wrong! Nobody wants to be second best or the best of whatever is left. Don't believe me? Just ask the University of Alabama. As I watched the boys of Bama in their bowl game the other night it was like looking in a mirror. I saw myself. I saw the lowly uninvited kid to the big party next door. I saw a bunch of bulked up players who were bulked up for all the wrong reasons, having not played football for almost a month and having not kept themselves in any semblance of football shape. Why? Because we all want to be a part of the big dance, not the NIT. We all want to play in the BCS National Championship game, not the Gator Bowl or the Rose Bowl or the Outback Bowl. And if we can't be in the one and only game that matters, then we won't even set our lineups, or, in Alabama's case, stay in football playing shape or give it our best effort on the field.

So thank goodness the BCS Bowl system is nearing its departure, its one shining moment. Because all you've accomplished, my BCS friend, is a bunch of mediocre fantasy football managers who believe there is no place like the top. Literally, no place like the top. Next year, you can be one of the top four and play for college football supremacy. And if you aren't one of those top four, then hey, the Cotton Bowl, the Orange Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl are all waiting for you, the mighty left-over.