You can't convince me Johnny Manziel deserves the Heisman over Manti Te'o any more than I'll probably be able to convince you that, right now, Johnny Football's team could beat Notre Dame, Alabama or Georgia.

But both statements are all too true and precisely what's wrong with college football. Heismans shouldn't be won by a quarterback with an all-time great nickname whose beyond-Cam Newton pass/run stats camouflage two bad second halves in Texas A&M's two biggest home games, both losses.

BUT: Those two losses, in Games 1 and 7, to teams now ranked No. 4 in the BCS (Florida) and No. 7 (LSU), should NOT keep a team with a redshirt freshman at quarterback from being able to grow up and catch fire and demolish Mississippi State (then ranked 15th) in Starkville and soundly whip Alabama in Tuscaloosa and earn a berth in an eight-team tournament for the national championship.

One day, when Manti Te'o, the Next Ray Lewis, has retired after 15 or so NFL seasons as a perennial Pro Bowler, maybe we'll have that eight-team college football playoff.

But if we had one now, the last team I'd want to play is Johnny Football's -- that is, if A&M got the final berth. It's currently and preposterously ranked ninth in the BCS.

You will find no bigger media fan of Manziel's than I am. I was skeptical last year, as he redshirted, when newspaper friends in Texas told me longtime high school reporters called Manziel the most amazing prep player they'd ever watched. That's a mouthful, podnah.