Chips and oranges and cell phones, oh my!

The votes are in, the ballots have been counted and the winner is... wait, we've known the winner all year long.

Yes, this year we will have a true national championship between the Miami Hurricanes, who have been undefeated since before Dubya was elected president, and the 11-0 Ohio State Buckeyes.

Finally, the BCS has put together a true national championship game. But, long before either of these teams take the field in Tempe, Arizona, in early January to play in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, the real winner is clear.

It was proven on Sunday during the Tostito's bowl selection game and on Saturday when, instead of roses or oranges, the players carried bags of chips to celebrate the victory.

The real winners in all of this madness are Tostitos, FedEx, Nokia and AT&T. Let's not forget that not only are these players playing to win a national championship, but to win the Sears trophy.

The biggest winner of all, of course, is the NCAA, whose name is on everything.

Excuse me for being cynical, but after watching the selection show I felt the sudden urge to make a cellular phone call to a parcel service and ask if I was allowed to send oranges, all while running to the grocery store for a bag of chips. Wasn't college football about who won and who lost at one time, not which game was named what?

I don't blame the sponsors, they have seen an opportunity and taken full advantage of it. I blame the colleges, and most of all, the NCAA.

For years the system of ranking teams and sending them to whatever bowl their conference had ties to seemed to work. Ok, periodically there was a dispute about who really was the national champion and it was never resolved, but often rehashed in coffee shops and chatrooms all the same. It made for healthy debate.

The debate must have bothered the NCAA, or perhaps they felt they could make a little more money without the debate.

Either way, the decision was made to throw out all of the years worth of tradition in order to make the games sexier for the advertisers, and now for the second season in a row, my favorite sporting event of the year has been ruined.

Is it really too much to ask to have a Rose Bowl with a Pac-10/Big Ten match up? It wasn't the previous 88 times, but they have figured out how to screw it up for the last two years.

As hard as the NCAA has tried, they haven't lost a fan in me yet. I will still watch the game and I will still be happy for whichever team wins the national championship.

After the game, I will sit with my beer and remember back to a time when tradition mattered and I wasn't old enough to drink. And I will start the debate about who should be No. 2.

At least they can't take everything away from me.