Accounting

I'm reading an interesting book called The Likeability Factor by Tim Sanders, and if you're looking for a simple way to "get ahead" at work, home, or on the social scene, check it out. The premise is simple: be honestly and genuinely friendly and helpful. There are four elements to likeability.

1. Friendliness
2. Relevance
3. Empathy
4. Realness

You can't truly have one without the previous; they build upon one another. The subtitle of the book is "How to Boost your L-Factor & Achieve your Life's Dreams," and it's worth a look.

In other news, I've had a chance to read most of this book because I've been recovering from a weekend in Las Vegas. Eight of us made the trip, most of us lost money, but I think we all had a great time. If you're headed down soon and looking for a great place to have dinner, try Bautista's Hole in the Wall. The wine is free and it comes in carafes.

12 minutes to blow your mind

Go ahead, imagine the 10th dimension.

Break it on down.

Michael Adams, chairman of the NCAA executive committee (and President of the University of Georgia), has recently publicly proposed a college football playoff. Talk about a long time coming... Of course little can happen before the 2010 bowl season is complete, and a lot of negotiation is needed, but we've come a long way from "that'll never happen." With a playoff in mind, I too wanted to contribute with a plan based on the BCS poll before the bowl season began.

To recap, the BCS looked like this on December 2.
1. Ohio State
2. LSU
3. Virginia Tech
4. Oklahoma
5. Georgia
6. Missouri
7. USC
8. Kansas
9. West Virginia
10. Hawai'i
11. Arizona State
12. Florida
13. Illinois
14. Boston College

In my world, the top two teams would get a bye week, and the remaining 12 would play on December 8, in a typical seeding set up. Therefore;

3. Virginia Tech vs. 14. Boston College
4. Oklahoma vs. 13. Illinois
5. Georgia vs. 12. Florida
6. Missouri vs. 11. Arizona State
7. USC vs. 10. Hawai'i
8. Kansas vs. 9. West Virginia

The winners would advance and play the next week, December 15, and would be re-seeded. Therefore;

1. Ohio State vs. 8. West Virginia
2. LSU vs. 7. USC
3. Virginia Tech vs. 6. Missouri
4. Oklahoma vs. 5. Georgia

Again, on December 22, re-seeded. Therefore;

1. Georgia vs. 4. West Virginia
2. Missouri vs. 3. USC

The winners (Georgia and USC) now have 10 days to prepare for a New Year's Day BCS National Championship Bowl Game.

The remaining teams would be re-seeded in the order they lost, to play #3 vs. #4, #5 vs. #6, etc., each in a BCS bowl (ie. Sugar, Rose, Orange, Fiesta and TBD) on January 1 leading up to the BCS Championship later that night.

Fiesta: 3. Missouri vs. 4. West Virginia
Orange: 5. Ohio State vs. 6. LSU
Rose: 7. Virginia Tech vs. 8. Oklahoma
Sugar: 9. Kansas vs. 10. Hawai'i
TBD: 11. Arizona State vs. 12. Florida
TBD2: 13. Illinois vs. 14. Boston College

Of course, each conference would have to play a conference championship (I'm talking to you, Pac-10 and Big-10 (11)), and (in my world), the remaining 26 bowls would be paired down to 8, giving us only 15 bowls. They would be played out between the final seeding of the BCS teams on December 22 and January 1.

If the season must be shortened by a game, everyone gets rid of their match-up with the weakest non-BCS conference school before conference play begins. This (relatively) strengthens the overall schedules, lessens wear and tear, and pares a game off a long season. If the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA), Division II and Division III college football can all figure out a playoff, so can Division 1-A, the so-called premier division in college football.