Is March Madness Really the Answer?

Coming off four days as thrilling as the opening weekend of this year's NCAA Tournament, it's only natural to lament that college football doesn't offer the same kind of postseason extravaganza.

And why do we love the Big Dance so much? Dr. Saturday contends it's because contenders of all sizes get their shot to play with the big boys: "The basketball tournament consistently produces the most unlikely, engaging moments in major sports, precisely because it's the only major sport that tosses its best minnows into the deep end with the sharks to see who can really swim."

Maybe so, but the little fish play -- and beat -- the big ones more often that you'd think during the regular season. Huge upsets happen all the time in college basketball during the dark days of November, and no one really seems to pay them any mind. By this time of year, those stunning results are reduced to afterthoughts.

We can't ignore that the one-and-done nature of the Big Dance heightens the excitement of David beating Goliath exponentially. Watching Northern Iowa take down Kansas becomes infinitely more compelling when it means busted brackets and the end of the Jayhawks' hopes for a national title. The same game played before Christmas would hardly even register in the national consciousness.

College football is superior because it offers a Tournament-type element of danger for top teams every single game, not just for a few weeks in March. When college basketball's No. 1 loses in the regular season, it's a blip on the radar screen. When college football's No. 1 loses, it's a disaster.

That's why I'm glued college football from noon to midnight every Saturday during the season, while I try to catch good college hoops games when I can.

I love March Madness as much as the next guy. I wholeheartedly agree that the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament are the best couple days in all of sports.

But I have yet to see a playoff proposal that wouldn't threaten to rob college football of at least some of that edge.