A VOTE TO LET MEDIA GO AWAY.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH Media

For all those media empires dedicated to creating the news it later has to cover, take a well-deserved bow. You've aided and abetted those who run college football into running circles around themselves trying to determine a national champion.

Start with ABC, the network that agreed to help set up the blueprint for the Bowl Championship Series with former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer back in 1995. It annually has funded this system and stuck by its commitment to not give into those who demand a playoff format.

The Associated Press uses more than 60 writers and broadcasters from across the nation, including the Daily News' Scott Wolf, to decide its poll. USA Today and ESPN pays the American Football Coaches Association for the right to add their names to the coaches' poll, putting both in the line of fire when some coaches admit they might go ahead and vote for USC as the champs no matter what the outcome of the Sugar Bowl.

If all this makes for an uncomfortable, if not conflicting situation, it should. Even though it's been going on for years, it was easier to overlook until the dam broke wide open Sunday night. Now, all those involved in these media giants should be squirming even more as the whole question of who's No. 1 is debated.

Now's the chance to stop the insanity and start over, without the media's involvement, like every other major sport has managed to do for years.

Put the polls down and back away and no one gets hurt anymore.

You play the games, we'll cover it.

``As a one-time AP voter, I had a real problem with helping to make news instead of reporting it,'' Michael Hunt, a columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, wrote this week. ``It was for that reason that reporters favored the inclusion of computers into the process in hopes that there would be no subjectivity-tinged controversies, but nobody wanted this Orwell-meets-Kubrick mess that the BCS has become.''

Actually, the writers hoped that by backing out on having the responsibility to declare the champion, college football might wake up and take the reigns, determining a winner the right way - on the field. Common sense didn't prevail, since bowl payouts and college presidents' unfounded objections became obstacles too large for the NCAA to see straight.

There's no doubt all the self-created controversy this week has brought more attention to the sport. But the NCAA shouldn't want this kind of coverage. Nor should it wrap itself around the media that helped create it.

--More tech support: As long as we've got the computers involved in picking a national-championship matchup, why not take it a step further and let the geeks decide who wins the title?

College Sports Television, using the EA Sports NCAA Football 2004 video game, not only set up a 16-team playoff using the BCS poll but also plans to show scores and highlights, starting with first-round coverage today (4:30 p.m.) in a half-hour show.

The Jan. 4 championship game, which CSTV calls the Crystal Bowl I, will be shown just before the Sugar Bowl takes place. A full bracket of the tournament can be found on the network's Web site (www.cstv.com).

--A positive sign: After none of the CIF Southern Section high school football championship games made it to TV last last season, the fact that KCAL-Channel 9 has tonight's Division I final (Loyola of Los Angeles vs. Long Beach Poly) and Fox Sports Net does Saturday night's Division II final (Hart of Newhall vs. Mission Viejo) should be viewed as more of things to come than a one-year special presentation.

It doesn't hurt that both games are at the new Home Depot Center in Carson, a facility much more conducive for a professional telecast that often costs the programmer at least $25,000 a pop in expenses. But KCAL and FSN have passionate people behind the scenes who've worked out the logistics with the CIF to orchestrate the coverage.

``From our perspective, it was a chance to do a big event; we jumped at it,'' said Jeff Proctor, the vice president of sports for KCAL and KCBS. ``It the first of what we hope are many more to come.''

FSN, which finished its seventh year of doing a game of the week, actually had first choice of title games and decided for the more-impressive Division II matchup - plus Hart made four appearances on FSN2 this season (including a win over Loyola) while Mission Viejo was on three times (including a victory over Long Beach Poly). KCAL was then approached about doing the Div. I game and decided it was a worthy fit.

It also helped both channels that FSN was locked into tonight's Lakers- Mavericks game, while KCAL has Saturday's Lakers-Blazers contest.

KCAL has Darrin Horton, Solomon Wilcott and Steve Hartman as its broadcasters; FSN uses its team of Mike Lamb, John Jackson and Petros Papadakis.

``We have an advantage that we've seen the teams (Hart and Mission Viejo) so much that our guys know them so well,'' FSN high school producer Brad Zager said. ``We couldn't be more prepared.''

Both FSN and KCAL wouldn't rule out live coverage in the coming years of the L.A. City section championship as well. Tonight's City Championship Division title matchup of Venice vs. Carson at the Coliseum will be delayed on LA36 (Saturday at 9 p.m.) with Randy Rosenbloom and Ron Glazer.

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By Tom Hoffarth