I know I'm not the only one who thought or wrote about it, but it's nice to feel some sense of validation on the "having to play Alabama twice was a big pile of buffalo chips."

In Stewart Mandel's latest article on the BCS playoff chatter coming out of Florida last week, he wrote:

But last year's unpopular all-SEC Alabama-LSU title matchup, on the heels of five straight SEC championships, may well have been a tipping point for some of the less prolific.

"I think thought process [toward a plus-one] had already begun at that point," said [ACC commissioner John] Swofford, "and that probably moved it a bit forward to a degree."

As I said before, "Alabama’s mere presence in the game, not whether they won it or not, is going to be the catalyst for changing the system."

The Tide was that guy that shows up at a party and his mere presence signals that the party is over and it's time to move on to something better.

And that just makes me smile.