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It is difficult to grow up in central Pennsylvania and not be a Nittany Lions fan. It is even harder to imagine your rival neighbor, the State University of New Jersey, beating anyone—let alone a ranked opponent. At 9-0 the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers are headed for a Big East showdown with West Virginia on December 2nd, with games against Cincinnati and Syracuse inbetween. While the win against Louisville represents a turning point for Rutgers, I also think it has much broader ramifications for the future of post-season college football.

After the win the ESPN announcers immediately started talking about the shape of the national title picture. Would beating the number three ranked team be enough to put Rutgers ahead of the many highly regarded one loss teams? What if Rutgers finished the season with a 12-0 record? Do they really deserve to play for the national championship game? Is the Big East a tough enough conference? While an entertaining debate, it is frankly the kind of talk that makes me turn off the television in disgust.

Division I-A college football is the only sport in which the champion is decided by committee. What happens on the field, no matter how miraculous or mundane it is in reality, can easily be overcome by perception and spin. That’s why they’re Rutgers, right? Yet the simple fact is that all of our stereotypes have been blown away this season by one word—parity. The playing field has never before been this proportionate; the time for a playoff tournament has never been this perfect. As fans of sport we should be willing to challenge the traditions and economics of the bowl system and select a national champion based on principle instead of politics.