The BCS is ridiculous.

But, you already knew that.

College football's method of deciding a national champion makes about as much sense as listening to NASCAR coverage on the radio.

The other night as I was watching Boise State hit three trick plays in the span of what seemed about a minute and a half, it hit me. It hit me like a flash, like a vision burnt across the Global Warming-induced unseasonably pleasant Western Pennsylvania sky.

What was my thought, you ask?

I was thinking, "Hey, maybe we should scrap our current playoff system and decide the PIAA Class AAAA football champion with our own sort of BCS."

We could employ the PCS, or Pennsylvania Championship Series (sponsorship is awarded to the highest bidder, of course).

Yeah, that has a nice ring to it. I can just see the T-shirts now and that PCS logo tacked to everything from Port Authority buses (the 10 that will remain after the cutbacks) to candy wrappers to cell phone screensaver downloads.

Of course, I'm kidding. Not about the corporate sponsorship part, but about the idea in its entirety.

Anyhow, it is a fun little exercise to look at the idea of a PCS.

The three components of the BCS system, given equal weight in the rankings, are the Harris Press poll, the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll and the computer average.

The PCS would also employ a three-pronged system.

Equal parts would be given to:

Polls. An average of the Post-Gazette, the Harrisburg Patriot-News and the Pennsylvania Football News polls.

A coaches poll. Of course, as with anything, only about 50 percent of the coaches sought for input would actually call back so we'd either have to go by which teams the person answering the phone at their house likes or go without a large number of votes.

Computer rankings. These would be done by a kid whose intelligence I can't match in the confines of his Carnegie Mellon University dorm room. I would meet him each Monday morning on the corner of Craig Street and Forbes Avenue and he'd secretly hand the document over in a Giant Eagle bag. Paper, of course, not plastic.

If all of that would have been done, if we would have crunched the numbers after the regular season, here is what a PCS system would have yielded this year, in order of the least prestigious bowl game to the game that would decide our state champion:

Skim Milk Game presented by The Pennsylvania Dairy Farmers -- Brashear vs. Frankford. At Altoona's Mansion Park Stadium, Friday Dec. 8 at 7 p.m.

Pay Raise Bowl presented by the Pennsylvania General Assembly -- Erie Cathedral Prep vs. Ridley. At Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Saturday Dec. 9 at 1 p.m.

The PennDOT Unending Construction Bowl -- North Penn vs. Penn Hills. At Fisher Stadium at Lafayette College on Saturday, Dec. 16 at 2 p.m.

Primanti Brothers/Maalox Upper Abdominal Discomfort Bowl -- Pennsbury vs. State College. At Pine-Richland High School Stadium on Sunday, Dec. 17 at 5:37 p.m.

PIAA Championship Game sponsored by Hershey's -- Upper St. Clair vs. Liberty. At Hersheypark Stadium on Monday, Dec. 18 at 8:07 p.m.

P.S. -- Abington, George Washington, Easton, Governor Mifflin, Wilson and Bishop McDevitt, but when the computer spit out its findings, your strength of schedule didn't register high enough to earn a spot in a PCS Bowl.

P.P.S. -- Before I get flooded with e-mails, calls and other critical correspondence, remember, this was a hypothetical and not a scientific study. I don't want to hear anything about certain schools getting cheated.

This was a joke, people. Kind of like the BCS.