For more than 50 years, we argued about it. Starting around 1960 with Northwestern athletic director Stu Holcomb's proposal for a «World Series» of college football — six conference champions and the top two independents playing a three-round tournament, all finished by Jan. 1 — the din of a playoff debate was never far in the distance. Because a lot of the most influential people in the college football industry (namely, bowl directors) benefited handsomely from the bowl system, we didn't get one until 2014.