Congratulations to the Ohio State Buckeyes. Not only did they win the Fiesta Bowl in dramatic fashion, but they also reinforced my yearly argument against the ridiculous BCS.

Note, this reporter is not congratulating Ohio State for winning the national championship. In my eyes there is no such thing in major college football, nor will there be until every team that has a realistic chance to win it is included in a legitimate title process.

Which brings us to the annual lesson, 10 reasons why college basketball is better than college football:

1. If the BCS ran college basketball, the Final Four teams would convene in New Orleans, ride in separate parade floats, then leave town with only two of the schools actually playing one another. Fans of the other two (Southern Cal and Oklahoma, let's say) would have to watch their teams play for third place in another city without ever getting a crack at No. 1 or No. 2.

2. If bracketologists ran college football, a playoff would be established in which every team with a consensus chance to win the tournament is included. The argument that the last team left out of the bracket will complain is moot. The last team left out of the NCAA basketball bracket complains, too, but doesn't have a realistic claim to the championship. The lowest seed to win the NCAA title was a No. 8 (Villanova, 1985); at-large teams are typically included all the way down to the No. 12 or No. 13 seeds. This is a HUGE margin of error compared to the greedy, two-team BCS format.

3. If the BCS ran college basketball, Arizona (and most other elite contenders) would already be eliminated from this season's national title hunt. December's one-point loss at LSU might very well have been fatal for the Wildcats.

4. If bracketologists ran college football, 47.9 percent of all Division I teams would not qualify for postseason play. That's the deal now, with 56 of the 117 I-A football schools going to bowl games. Even counting an NCAA play-in and the expanded NIT, less than a third of DI basketball members (32.1 percent) play on after Selection Sunday.

5. If the BCS ran college basketball, the nation's top teams would play their last regular season games in mid-February, then sit idle for 41 days (the time between Ohio State's win over Michigan on Nov. 23 and its win over Miami on Jan. 4) awaiting a national championship game for which they'd be rusty and over-prepared.

6. If bracketologists ran college football, student-athletes in that sport would be allowed to compete in December the same way basketball players can. Why is it that football players can't leave campus for weekend games while their basketball (not to mention I-AA, DII and DIII football) counterparts go anywhere, anytime during an allegedly pivotal academic month? If the response is that football's season is too long, then stop playing games in August or Labor Day weekend when the weather is too hot, anyway.

7. If the BCS ran college basketball, any team seeded lower than No. 2 overall would play single games in random pairings as part of the Meaningless.Com Invitational. Sites would include glamour destinations such as Detroit, El Paso, Shreveport and Boise.

8. If bracketologists ran college football, we would be subject to the same second-guessing, debate and projections that make basketball's Selection Sunday among the very best days in sports. We would then deliver a college football tournament that would shatter every record for ratings, exposure, interest and sponsorship dollars. Of course, non-BCS members would have to get a piece of that considerable pie (but I digress…).

9. If the BCS ran college basketball, anyone with a computer would be permitted to include his or her power ratings in an equation to select and seed the NCAA Tournament field. Say what you want about the NCAA men's basketball committee (and I have!!), but its members actually watch games and debate the merits of respective teams like human beings. They don't leave the job to spreadsheets, media members with axes to grind, sports information directors posing as coaches or mathematicians who might not know one end of the football from the other. A formula shouldn't tell us Ohio State deserves to play for a national title when no one was sure the Buckeyes were even No. 1 in their own conference (we know that now, but Iowa certainly had a case before New Year's Day).

10) If bracketologists ran college football, you'd get to read my bracket projections virtually year-round!

Finally, ask yourself just one more question: How would Vegas respond to an Ohio State-Southern Cal matchup? No disrespect to anyone involved, but we all know who the favorite (and I daresay fairly strong favorite) would be. With that said, let's turn our attention to a sport that truly understands how to determine its annual champion.

Joe Lunardi is the resident Bracketologist for ESPN, ESPN.com and ESPN Radio. He may be reached at bracketology@comcast.net.