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When it comes to college football playoff advocacy, most of us voice our opinion at the TV or among a group of friends or in a Buffalo Wild Wings to whoever will listen. Dan Wetzel is different. Dan Wetzel wrote a best-selling book and has stumped relentlessly for playoffs via his Yahoo! Sports column and Twitter feed and any other way he can find to cram your brain with pro-playoff propaganda.
It worked. His Death to the BCS book has killed the BCS or at least maimed it so that it needs plastic surgery and will now look more like Alec Baldwin than Swamp Thing. Congratulations to Wetzel and his merry band of playoff proponents. He has made our lives, nay earth, a better place, and the least we could do is give him our imaginary People's Champion award hardware.
Think back to last year (thinking ... thinking ... yay, Kellen Moore plays for us!). When Wetzel was nominated for the inaugural People's Champion, his candidacy was cute, as in look at the widdle guy who thinks he can take down the BCS by having people read books. It wasn't that we didn't take his anti-BCS case seriously. It was that the BCS powers-that-be were so power drunk and stubborn that the thought of a college football world without national championship formulas was ludicrous.
Fast forward 12 months, and we have ourselves the makings of a baby playoff system with no automatic qualifying rules. This is progress for a sport that traditionally deems progress as adding more bowl games with MAC tie-ins.
And we have Wetzel to thank.
Sure, there are others who have pushed for playoffs. And their contributions were vitally important. But many consider Wetzel to be the face of the playoff movement, which makes his People's Champion nomination an easy one. Now how about he writes a book about the down without contact rule? That is my new thorn.
ed's note: Dan Wetzel is one of four nominees for this year's Bronco Nation People's Champion. A new hero will be crowned on Friday. Vote below, and express your love in the comments.