The structure of college football is as fundamentally American as you can get, with the rising tide of the sport’s popularity lifting all boats. Boise State’s recent ascent parallels that of many previous "mid-majors" who now are part of the established power structure and the Broncos now find themselves knocking on the door of the full-fledged big time as the latest in a long line of upstarts who made good dating back at least as far as underdog Alabama in the 1926 Rose Bowl.

If you’re in favor of a Division I-A college football playoff, by all means, celebrate the fact that folks are talking about the BCS, for all the good it will do you. Even if the power brokers with a vested financial interest in preserving the existing system lacked the savvy, the political connections, and the war chest to beat back the tepid efforts suggested by the Justice Department’s letter to Senator Hatch---a dubious proposition at best---all the sturm und drang originating in the Beehive State will last approximately as long as it takes for the Mountain West to be made an automatically-qualifying BCS conference. Since that development appears to be right around the corner, Senator Hatch’s outrage figures to cool as soon as his home state’s major players are let inside the gates he presently is bound and determined to storm.