He told The Gainesville Sun he already has discussed playoff ideas with Florida State president T.K. Wetherell, who has also recently pledged support.

And he keeps promising to talk to many others, even after his Gators navigated the BCS water to get into the title game. That, he swears, isn't the point. The problem remains.

He has vowed to take the issue up with his fellow SEC presidents at their annual spring meeting. Machen holds more cards than perhaps even he knows. He thinks this will take a long time, and perhaps it will because there still is a lot of status-quo money that will push back.

But if Machen can convince his fellow SEC presidents, if he can present viable revenue options, if he can convince them to send the championship system back under central NCAA control (and out of the hands of conference commissioners), if he can get the SEC to say it will opt out of the BCS when the current television contracts expire after the 2009 season, then the system immediately will crumble.

It's that simple. College football can't have a viable championship system without the SEC.