College football playoff picks: two easy winners and two coin flips

Plus, when a me-first attitude ruins what should be a team game

Please let me rant for a moment as to why I refuse to watch meaningless bowl games with silly titles between teams with depleted rosters after star players - and sometimes coaches - left for greener pastures.

I will watch the four playoff games (see predictions below) because the rosters of those teams have by and large not suffered player or coach defections.

Have you heard of what happened in the Pop-Tarts Bowl? Have you even heard of the Pop-Tarts Bowl? More importantly, did you know that Pop-Tarts is hyphenated? I certainly didn't.

So the Miami Hurricanes, one of the better teams in college football, were playing the Iowa State Cyclones, not as highly rated as Miami, but still a worthy opponent.

The difference between the two was seemingly the presence of Miami quarterback Cam Ward, an elusive comeback artist who earlier in the year engineered Miami's 39-38 shocker over Cal after the Golden Bears had taken a seemingly insurmountable 35-10 lead in the third quarter.

Ward reportedly earns $2.1 million from Miami's collective, along with product endorsements, and is likely to make considerably more than that when his name is called in the NFL draft this spring.

Now on his third school after stops at Incarnate Word and Washington State, Ward played long enough in the Pop-Tarts Bowl to break the all-time Division I career touchdown passes record with 156 as he and his teammates took a 31-28 lead into halftime. More of the same would be needed in the second half to put away the pesky Cyclones.

But, unknown to most of the Pop-Tarts fans watching at home, Ward and his head coach had decided beforehand that he would play only in the first half, presumably to protect his marketability.

In his place, the Hurricanes inserted a sophomore quarterback who had played in only one game all season and thrown just 12 passes total.

Predictably, their offense stalled in the second half and Iowa State, which used the same quarterback for the entire game, took a 42-41 lead when that quarterback, Rocco Becht, scored on fourth down with just 56 seconds left in the game.

But this battle was by no means over.

Those 56 seconds could seem like a lifetime for a tired Iowa State defense trying to protect a one-point lead.

Seems like the perfect time for the all-time touchdown pass leader to strap on his helmet and win one for the Gipper. And Miami didn't even need a touchdown. No, a simple field goal would do.

But Ward remained on the sideline as his teammates managed to run nine plays in those 56 seconds but failed to advance the ball into field goal range.

I don't blame Cam Ward or any other college athlete in any sport for chasing as much gold as he or she can. It's the way of the sporting world right now, especially in college football. But a me-first attitude in a team sport never works out well in the end.

If Ward didn't plan to finish the game, he should never have started the game. You're either all-in or all-out. There's no in-between. The fact that his head coach was complicit in this decision ahead of time is even more disturbing.

It may be a while before I eat another Pop-Tart.

Playoff picks are as follows: