Krause: Does anyone really care about who wins the BCS championship game?

Tonight, Ohio State plays Louisiana State University in the BCS championship game tonight (8:15).Back in October, maybe, this would have been a momentous occasion – with bells, whistles, coast-to-coast coverage, and all the rest. This would have gone doublethis year, as the regular season was fraught with upsets and unlikely victors.But too much time has passed between then and now. And with the gluttonous bowl season having exhausted everyone a week ago, we’re left with a hangover of games that, frankly, nobody cares about.The BCS season is like a big party that just won’t end. You know the type. You’ve had a house full of company all night, and everyone’s had fun. But as the crowd thins out, there are a few people who won’t leave. You want to clean up and go to bed, but these people just won’t let you.You have a headache, but these guys are still whooping it up. You scratch your head, and drop every hint you can think of. No go.This is where we are now with the BCS. Tonight, LSU and Ohio State play for a national championship that has been propped up to ridiculous proportions by the NCAA, and except for the two schools playing, our attention has turned elsewhere.There’s a reason the bowl season used to end on New Year’s. It may have been a glut of games, but they were done and out of the way by the time the NFL playoffs began.Now, the BCS championship is wedged between the first and second weekends of the NFL post-season. In other words, there’s a new party in town, and the old one is running out of steam. Fast.What makes it worse is that the system is so bogus anyway. If the NCAA had a playoff – which is what most fans seem to want – and the tournament ran into tonight, there might be some interest, because there would be a natural progression that brings us to this point.But to have a system with an arcane set of criteria, and then run the showcase game six days after most people bid farewell to the college season is absurd. You might as well have the World Series in November (which would have happened last fall had the Red Sox-Rockies series gone seven).Of course, asking for less gluttony and more sanity with the bowl season is useless. There’s too much money to be made to expect the NCAA ito pare down the “who cares” bowls to make room for the BCS came to be played on or close to Jan.1.But here it is, Jan. 7, and I’ll be interested to see what the ratings are for this game. It’s a shame that the NCAA’s showcase football game is an afterthought, but the it has no one to blame but itself for that.All I know is that come 10 p.m., I’m watching CSI Miami.Steve Krause is sports editor of The Item