From the late stages of August to the opening week of December, college football provides the most exciting three-plus months in all of sports.

From the anti-climatic BCS selection show to the final whistle of the so-called national championship game, the excitement of the college football season turns into a month (or longer) of ho-hum matchups, all culminating with the only game that really seems to matter.

It is time for a change, and fortunately our president-elect agrees. So does most anyone who isn’t affiliated with our college football bowl system.

There was a time when bowl games meant something. They were a reward for a great season, and only the best teams earned that distinction.

We now have 34 bowl games, which includes 68 teams. There are 119 Division I teams. That means just 51 schools didn’t earn a bowl bid. Too bad. There should be other teams on the sidelines joining the likes of Michigan, Auburn, Tennessee, Texas A&M; and Virginia, schools that didn’t qualify for the postseason.

Thank goodness there aren’t two more games. The only eligible schools not to get bowl bids were Louisiana-Lafayette, San Jose State, Bowling Green and Arkansas State. At least Lafayette would have brought with it the Rajun’ Cajuns, one of the great nicknames in all of sports.

How watered down is the bowl system? The ACC was the worst of the BCS conferences this season, and it placed 10 teams in the postseason, including one six-loss team and four five-loss squads. Only Virginia and Duke were left out.

Bowl games used to be a reward for a special season. Now it’s a reward for six wins and a .500 record. Nine schools with 6-6 records are bowling, including Florida Atlantic, Northern Illinois, Colorado State and even Notre Dame.

Do these teams really deserve to continue playing? Is really there excitement for an Independence Bowl that will feature Louisiana Tech and Northern Illinois, a matchup made possible when the SEC didn’t have enough teams qualify for the postseason.

There’s also 17 teams still playing that compiled 7-5 records, while Hawaii finished with a 7-6 mark. Thirteen teams with eight wins are also bowling, but at least they only have four defeats, except for Buffalo, which has five.

Sure, all these games count to the teams that will play in them and their fans, many of whom will flock to wherever their favorite school lands. Of course, at this time next year, good luck finding anyone who remembers who won this month’s Cotton Bowl.

That’s not the issue with the BCS. Let the schools with the mediocre records have their bowl games, but give the other games a chance to mean something.

Who is to say that Florida and Oklahoma are the best teams in the land right now? There are slew of one-win teams that might beg to differ, including Texas, Alabama, Southern California, Texas Tech and Penn State. What about Cinderella? It works in basketball. Utah and Boise are undefeated, Ball State played one bad game. Give them a chance.

What about some of the two-loss teams? LSU won the BCS title last season with two defeats. Brigham Young, Texas Christian, Cincinnati and Ohio State only have two losses right now. Of course, in the Buckeyes’ case, that’s a good thing for all of us.

Every year it’s the same thing. There are a collection of teams near the top, and we let computers decide who the best two teams are. It’s happened again.

Apparently, Oklahoma is better than Texas even though the Longhorns beat the Sooners on the field in rather convincing fashion. Call that an oversight by the Big 12 to let the BCS rankings decide a divisional tie-breaker.

In most every other sport under the sun, there are playoffs. There is one in college football at every level, but the top. We’ve all heard the excuses, missed class time, difficulty of travel for fans and the length of the season.

Apparently, that hasn’t been a problem for Richmond and James Madison, a pair of Virginia schools that advanced to the Division I-AA (or whatever it is called now) semifinals.

It all comes down to — as with everything else — money. The schools don’t want to lose the money that’s thrown at them by these games.

Well, a playoff could make them even more money. The system is in place. An eight-team playoff would include the six conference winners and two at-large teams, exactly like it’s done now. Seed the teams 1-through-8 and let’s play ball.

True, someone will get left out, but that’s part of our ESPN-ruled world. Just ask Graham Harrell, who wasn’t invited to the Heisman Trophy ceremonies, like it’s his fault the Texas Tech defense allowed 65 points to Oklahoma. Or, ask any bubble team that doesn’t get invited to the NCAA Tournament in March.

Make the four major bowls the opening round of an eight-team playoff. The semifinals and a ‘real’ national title game would follow over the next two weeks. Done.

True, it would push the season further into January, put college football in competition with the NFL playoffs, and might make the big bowls swoon because their games might not have the same influence they once had. How is that different from what we have now?

How about cutting back on the regular season, and do we really need a month between games for Florida and Oklahoma? Two weeks between games for the Super Bowl is bad enough. We get four weeks (or longer) in college football.

Changes can and should be made. Will it happen? Well, Barack Obama has said he would ‘throw his weight’ around on the issue.

Combine Obama’s influence with ESPN’s money — they will control the BCS starting in 2011 — and it just might happen. After all, what television wants, they usually get.

Brian Woodson is sports editor of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. Contact him at bwoodson @ bdtonline.com.