As I gazed on entranced, observing the self-anointed THE Ohio State University clinically wallop Oregon on Monday night, I was struck through the screen as if by a charging 250-pound Cardale Jones after keeping the ball on a read-option with a series of epiphanies.

The first was that in some universe, I’m certain that Emilo Estevez discretely strolled into a Corvallis bar to start a “Quack” chant. In that very same dive, Joey ‘Blue Skies’ Harrington soothed a flock of sobbing Duck fans with a rendition of Billy Joel’s eternal “Piano Man” at the end of the night as Charlie Sheen drunkenly crooned Neil Diamond off in the corner.

The second was that Blue Mountain State prodigal signal-caller Alex Moran would have fit right in at OSU with Johnny Utah and his alter ego, Shane Falco, and was brilliant in his aspiration to Peter Pan his way through school as a second-string quarterback. Although not quite as brilliant as Urban Meyer was for maximizing his bullpen.

Cardale Jones may be the 6-foot-5, NFL-ready, real-life manifestation of Radon Randell and played like it during the Buckeyes historic playoff run, but that must make Meyer coach Marty Daniels at his peak for transforming his third-string quarterback famed for penning “Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL classes are POINTLESS” on his now defunct Twitter account from out of the NFL Jamarcus Russell into Heisman Tim Tebow.

For symmetry sake, that of course makes Joey Bosa Thad Castle.

The third revelation was perhaps the most poignant, and was recited along my inner monologue in a Forrest Gump drawl: watching playoffs and college football come together was like peas and carrots. Apparently, the nation concurred.

After 16 years of force-fed BCS computer rankings, the first-ever college football playoff championship broadcast averaged 33.4 million viewers across the country, a 21-percent spike in viewership from last year’s title game between Florida State and Auburn, and turned in the highest ratings in the history of both ESPN and cable TV.

As my inner eye shifted and I re-imagined Keanu Reaves with a Rip Van Winkle beard running cross country garbed in a track suit and Bubba Gump Shrimp snapback, it occurred to me. As much as it pains me to ripoff the concept, why not give the whole playoff football bit a spin on the Division II level? The proof is in the Buckeye pudding, and there’s never been a better time to hop on the bandwagon.

Just consider the possibilities.

If Division I can facilitate a four-team playoff with 125 schools under its jurisdiction, Division II, with its 156 universities, ought to be able to manage at least a six-team playoff. But why stop there? Let’s go nuts with a 24-team bracket, and play the games out over a month long period between late November and Christmas.

Sure, there won’t be the panache provided by incorporating classics like the Rose, Peach, Cotton, Orange, Fiesta, Sugar and GoDaddy bowls in to the proceedings, a deciding committee manned by Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck’s dads, nor a talent pool founded by 63 scholarships per team as opposed to the 36 permitted per team in Division II, but it could work.

It could work.

In fact it has worked since 1973 when Louisiana Tech recovered from a 21-19 loss to Eastern Michigan University in its season opener to cap a 12-1 record with a 34-0 dismantling of Western Kentucky University in college football’s first inaugural playoff championship.

Go figure.

Fully reloaded after the loss of NFL hall of famer Terry Bradshaw and starting QB Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame in 1970, Louisiana Tech repeated as champs in 1974 — just ahead of Central Michigan University in the polls. And so one of college football’s very first playoff dynasties was born. It wouldn’t be the last conceived, either.

Louisiana Tech, as well San Diego State, Boise State, Delaware, CMU, Akron, Western Kentucky and Troy all played in and or won Division II playoff championship games before jettisoning for Division I. Despite the success each of the aforementioned programs experienced at the Division II scale, none can match Grand Valley State University’s credentials.

After losing a heart breaker to North Dakota, 17-14, in the 2001 national championship game, GVSU defeated Valdosta State 31-24 in 2002 to claim the program’s first title. The Lakers then avenged themselves with a 10-3 victory against North Dakota in 2003 to cement a rare repeat.

A pair of triumphs against Northwest Missouri State in 2005 and 2006 gave GVSU four championships in a five year span, and a runner-up performance to the Bearcats in 2009 gave GVSU six championship appearances in a nine year duration.

All six performances were broadcast on ESPN, although unless you attended GVSU or happened to have incidentally surfed away from Nick at Night after sitting on the remote, you probably missed it. If you didn’t, you were privy to one of the best-kept secrets in sports.

Gone are the days of Brian Kelly and Chuck Martin, but in the history of Division II college football, only North Dakota State (5) and Northwest Missouri State (4) have won as many titles as GVSU (4). To tell a Laker that playoff football works is to explain that if you lie down underneath an apple tree for a nap, you take the risk of getting cracked in the skull when gravity decides to pull its spherical alarm clock down upon you.

Thanks, Newton.

It’s redundant, and obvious. As clear cut as the NCAA’s blatant exploitation of what it affectionately calls its “student-athletes”. Amateurs that play in front of millions without seeing a dime. Indentured servants dressed in the freshest uniforms who help generate billions of dollars in revenue at major programs across the country while sacrificing their time and bodies in the pursuit of a national crown, regardless of whether or not they play school well.

It’s one of the worst kept secrets in sports.

Rudy was on to something when he proposed a playoff all those years ago, and it’s sports fans that benefit from his vision realized. The NCAA, too. A high-percentage of the athletes passed along through the system with a free-education guarantee that isn’t promised, and then disposed of like last week’s Lanthorn?

Not particularly.

As much as I’d love to see the evolution of five super conferences, an expanded eight-team Division I playoff field, a BMS movie hit theaters and for Division II to maintain its spot ahead of the curve, the next monumental change due to be made in college football is also clear.

That’s for the NCAA to either eradicate the hypocrisy of a “remain eligible at all costs” status quo or to start calling its business what it is, officially, with ratified benefits beyond a free ride.

Just like the playoffs where, it’s an overdue movement waiting dormant for an opportunity to manifest itself. Now all there is to do is stand by for 42 years until the big business Division I football-regulating bodies that be get it right.