Now that president-elect Barack Obama is going to fix the Bowl Championship Series mess, I've got another sports-related topic I wish he'd take a look at.

 I don't think college football coaches should be allowed to use the words "bowl eligible" as some kind of barometer for a successful season.

 Wisconsin Badgers football coach Bret Bielema traveled down that path this week when he said:

 "This is the seventh year in a row that we'll be bowl eligible. That puts us as (the) No. 2 longest (streak) in the Big Ten. Ohio State has the longest at eight. It says a lot about your program and being able to sustain things for a long time. We definitely had expectations coming into this year to have more victories than we do at this point in the season. But bottom line is we've scraped and put ourselves in a position to be bowl eligible, and what we do this Saturday has a lot to do with what we could do in the future."

 Talk about grading on a curve. These days, when so many BCS conference teams can rig their schedules to play seven of 12 home games, while scheduling three or four automatic victories in the non-conference season, becoming bowl eligible should be included with these other sports "accomplishments:"

 1, Making the NHL playoffs;

 2, Winning the men's or women's post-season National Invitation Tournament;

 3, Qualifying for the old WISAA state playoffs;
 
 4, Rushing for 1,000 yards in a 16-game NFL season (that comes to 62.5 yards per game);

 5, A quality start by a major-league pitcher.

 Yes, the Badgers, in all likelihood, will be going to a bowl game. With 33 bowls, that means 66 teams among the current 119 in the Football Bowls Subdivision, or 55.5 percent, will be going bowling. A few more will be "bowl eligible" but remain home.

 All of those coaches can try to pass off their seasons as successful. But that doesn't mean we have to agree.