It wouldn't be bad either if Florida won the national title too. That would be nice, but the game Young really wants Machen to win is the tug-of-war between the tradition of the current bowls and the logic of a playoff system.
Suffice it to say Utah's outspoken president has a strong disliking of the present way the national championship is decided. He doesn't like how polls and computers decide who goes where and what teams play for the national title.
He doesn't like how teams with perfect records are left out of the mix, always playing the part of waterboy while the powerful schools star as quarterback, orchestrating how the postseason plays out.
"It's fundamentally un-American," Young said. "The current system is outrageous, unless we want to maintain a monopoly."
The monopoly he refers to is how the current system plays into the hands of the power conferences, making it difficult for a non-BCS school to ever play for a national title.
Earlier this year, Florida coach Urban Meyer said he believed his 2004 Utah team was a national title contender, calling it a "once-in-a-lifetime team." But instead of playing for a championship ring, the Utes had to settle for beating on Pittsburgh 35-7 in the Fiesta Bowl.
"They weren't even that good," Young said. "We should have at least played Auburn or someone else good like that."
Like the Utes, Auburn was undefeated that year and left out of the national title picture. This time, it's Boise State's turn to wonder "what if" as the Broncos' undefeated season was rewarded with a spot in the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma. If they win big, everyone will wonder if the Broncos could have done more.
Schools such as Utah and Boise State can complain all they want about the unfairness of the current system, but it's highly unlikely their displeasure can bring about a dramatic overhaul such as switching to a playoff system. To be successful, the effort would have to be spearheaded by the presidents of the major schools in the BCS conferences.
That is where Machen and others with similar weight come in to play. Machen, who served as Utah's president for six years before assuming the same position at Florida in January 2004, and Florida State president T.K. Wetherell have spoken out recently in favor of a playoff system.
''A playoff is inevitable,'' Machen told Bloomberg News. ''The public strongly favors a playoff, but university presidents are in denial about that. They just don't see it. Whatever the format, I believe we need to get ahead of it and create the system rather than responding to the external pressures.''
Young's response? Go for it, Bernie.
"God Bless Bernie, his heart is in the right place," Young said. "Going to a playoff system wouldn't hurt his school, Florida would still get its shot, but it would give another group of schools a chance."
A playoff system also has the backing of BYU president Cecil O. Samuelson.
"Like most others who follow college football, we at BYU continue to be interested in an approach that would determine the NCAA Division I football champion on the field and that would more equitably distribute any revenue that would result," he said.
The BCS system has sponsored a title game since 1998. Two teams are selected to play in the title game and four other bowls pit the other top teams against one another. Why the hesitancy to switch to a playoff format? If you ask Mike Slive, the SEC commissioner who serves as the BCS coordinator, he'll tell you the drama each week delivered in the regular season couldn't be replaced by a playoff system.
"Regional games have become national games of importance," he said earlier this year.
While defending the current system, Slive did leave open the possibility of tweaking the system, although he said most of the conference commissioners want to stay away from the "dreaded word, 'playoff.' "
But those who look at the numbers believe the real reason the commissioners continue to squelch playoff talk is money. The payout for the 2006 bowls is roughly $210 million. Of that, the five BCS bowls dole out $17 million to each team. Utah and Boise State are the only non-BCS affiliated teams to earn a chunk of that profit, so with the BCS teams getting the large percentage of the profits, why would they want to split that up?
"It's all about the money," Young said. "[NCAA president] Myles Brand and the NCAA is just a subsidiary of the BCS presidents, and it is all about the money."
Machen, who doesn't have a favored playoff format, said he intends to bring up the subject of switching to a playoff system when the SEC presidents meet in March. One alternative discussed this year was switching to a "plus one" format, where the top four teams play, and the winners of those games face off for the national title.
Young doesn't like that idea, and favors a 16-team, or more, traditional playoff format. He'd also go back to 11 games instead of 12 to make room on schedules for the playoffs.
"Every system is going to be a little imperfect, but it's better than what we have now," he said. "What we have now favors certain teams and conferences, and that is fundamentally un-American."
Not surprisingly, among the strongest voices who want the system to remain as is are the bowl directors, such as Tom Starr, the executive director of the Armed Forces Bowl. Starr said last year the bowl had an economic impact on the Dallas area of about $20 million. He doesn't see a way smaller bowls such as his could survive if the system went to a playoff format.
"They say the smaller bowls could host the first round, midlevels host the second and so on," he said. "But you know they'd want to hold those games in bigger stadiums and not in places like Shreveport or Boise. People say we should change the system because it's unique and not a playoff format like other sports. I say what is wrong with being unique?"
