I had planned to spend the entire column this week railing on Division I football’s BCS system and making my case for a play-off. I then thought better of it because every time I’ve heard the talking heads on TV or radio talking about the BCS, I just get tired of hearing about it.

Division I football needs a play-off system just like the other three divisions of NCAA football and every other sport that has a postseason national championship tournament.  The NCAA sponsors 88 total sports and awards a national championship trophy in 87 of those – yep, Division I football is the only one that an NCAA Champion is not recognized.

Something tells me that the other 87 sports don’t have it wrong. As much attention given and money involved in college football at the big-time level, there ought to at least be a way that a champion can be crowned on the field without wondering if the two teams playing were the right teams to be on the field.

There, I limited it to three paragraphs and didn’t get too mad – but after it’s talked about until the talking heads are blue in the face, I’ll probably be frustrated again. Bring on an eight-team playoff and settle it in a tournament just like everybody else does. Either that or just bring on basketball.

Speaking of basketball, three members of the Gulf South Conference West Division have made some national pushes in the early parts of the 2008-09 season. In this week’s NABC Division II men’s poll, Arkansas-Monticello cracked the top 25 landing at No. 23. The Boll Weevils are 6-0 after the first few weeks of play.

Charlie Schaef’s Ouachita Tigers got five votes in this week’s poll, which came out on Tuesday. The Tigers then went out that night and defeated No. 18 Drury at Bill Vining Arena 66-56. The Tigers play Texas A&M-Commerce tonight at 7 p.m. at Vining Arena and should receive more votes if they can defeat the Lions and move to 7-1 on the season.

Third is Christian Brothers out of Memphis. The Bucs are the defending GSC Tournament Champions and defeated the only other ranked team in the GSC, North Alabama, Wednesday night in Memphis. UNA went into the game ranked No. 11 in the nation before CBU improved to 6-1 with the win.

Thanksgiving is a time of feasting and college basketball has taken advantage of the play on words over the last few years as ESPN has featured several games throughout Thanksgiving week on “Feast Week.” It signals the unofficial beginning of the televised portion of college basketball which will go through late March.

While there will be an abundance of games that you will be able to watch in the comfort of your own home, once again there will be more than enough opportunities for you to watch it in person in Arkadelphia over the next few months. I urge you to grab a junior high and high school schedule from any of the school districts in the county, get a schedule of Ouachita and Henderson basketball and find some time to support these local teams.

That’s my public service announcement for the holiday season. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving and I hope that we can all keep from getting too rushed during the Christmas season.

Chris Babb is the external director of alumni at Ouachita Baptist University. E-mail him at babbc@obu.edu.