Can there be pure pleasure in sports with all the blogs, message boards and other mechanisms designed to incite fans already obsessed with games people play?

                                                -- T. J. Simers

Ohio State was No. 1 and LSU was No. 2 in the Associated Press (AP) Top-25 poll released today, just as they were a month ago. Four weeks of upsets and unlikely results capped the most unpredictable college-football season in recent memory. And there is so much turmoil in the rankings, with many fans of the top eight teams repeating their annual demand for a playoff system to determine the national collegiate-football champion.

Yes, Los Angeles Times sports columnist T. J. Simers said it right. Nowadays, fans can be incited to commit anything short of open rebellion against the government.

Editor’s Note: To read the previous columns by Mr. Simers, please go to www.latimes.com/simers.

This writer just posted in the Fox Sports on MSN and at the AOL.com Sports Fanhouse the following comments: “There is only one way to force the universities to adopt the playoffs to determine at least the top eight collegiate football teams. We, the fans, must organize a boycott of all the college games and the products or services of their corporate sponsors and advertisers of the TV coverage. We at the www.mabuhayradio.com will start the boycott today. We just hope that the idea gets the support of football fans.” To read the comments of other fans, many of whom advocate the playoff system, please go to http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/7462200 and

http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/12/02/bcs-still-hates-the-pac-ten/1#comments

News Flash: USC Coach Pete Carroll “reiterated that he would like to see a playoff system for college football.”

News Flash: USC Coach Pete Carroll “reiterated that he would like to see a playoff system for college football.” Per the report of L.A. Times staff writer Gary Klein, Coach Carroll said further, “This is a finish to the season that is worthy of that discussion (of a playoff system) being taken to the nth degree. And there’s a lot of fans and schools that would see it that way” (L.A. Times, Dec. 3, 2007, page D12).

Yes, it will take time for fans to persuade the collegiate-football conferences to agree on a playoff system at the end of the regular season. But once the TV networks realize that their ratings are affected and corporate sponsors and advertisers are faced with declining sales of their products or services, there will be a greater pressure on university-and-college athletic departments to consider the playoff format. There is no other way.

Perhaps the alumni of the different institutions that compose the various conferences will tell their alma mater to support the playoff system, otherwise they will stop buying tickets to the football games. Perhaps these rich alumni will threaten also to stop giving other support to their team.

If football fans, their kin and friends join this boycott of the coming football bowls this Christmas season and the championship bowls in early January 2008, then the networks and their advertisers will begin to listen.

The effectiveness of the threat of a fans’ boycott has been demonstrated just recently in the case of Major-League superstar Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez. This web site joined the protest when A-Rod opted out of his contract with the New York Yankees. Perhaps no entity would admit that the threat of a fans’ boycott—of the team that signs up A-Rod and his outrageous demand for a 10-year $350-million contract—forced baseball organizations not to bid against each other. But the bottom line was that A-Rod was forced to go back to the Yankees, swallow his pride and accept a cheaper contract. To read our article about the proposed baseball boycott, please just click on this link Major-League Baseball Teams Should Not Sign Up A-Rod.

What say you, Mr. Simers, our favorite L.A. Times' sports columnist, and college-football fans?