The BCS (Bowl Championship Series or Big Cash, Son!)
“…playoffs? Playoffs!?!?” (c) Jim Mora
BCS coordinator Mike Slive and former Colts coach Jim Mora seem like they have a few things in common, yes? When Slive was asked during a press conference if college football would be moving towards a playoff system with all of the parity in college football this year? He would only go as far as Possibly looking at a “+1 option”, which would pit the top two teams in the country against each other after the four major BCS Bowl games are played. But as far as anything else? Yeah, not so much.
“You know, we are looking at that as a potential option for some modification, but I don’t see anything beyond that, And I’m not saying that [plus-one] can’t happen, but I’m certainly open-minded and at least from my perspective looking very, very hard drilling down into that concept.”
Slive’s reasons for turning a deaf ear towards the potentiality of a college football playoff are as follows:
1. Protecting the value of the regular season games
2. High belief in the value of the bowl system, and how it gives many student athletes an opportunity to compete for additional championships
3. Academics, and a want/need to keep football to a single semester sport.
Lets review, shall we?
Point #1: I read this as “We’re making money on these regular season games, and if we set up a playoff system, these regular season games won’t have the same hype/value, and we might lose some money (or we might hurt our chances to get unexpected revenue from a surprise team that enters the BCS race late in the season, ala South Florida this year)
Point #2: I read this as “These bowl games are making us a bunch of money…and what student athlete wouldn’t want to win a CarQuest Bowl over being named the overall college football champion through a playoff system?”
Point #3: I read this as “We’re making a lot of money as it is right now, and if we change the system we will lose some money. Now, granted, there are a lot of bye weeks in college football, and people would probably be open to playing a 10 or 11 game season and having a true champion, but…well we wouldn’t make as much money that way…So, lets throw out a reason that people can get behind, even if we’re just using it as a cover.”
Seriously people. Are those really the reasons why we can’t put a playoff system in place? Regular Season games, the feel-good feeling you get from winning the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, and the fact that you inexplicably could not fit an 8 team playoff into a 4 month college football season? Even the BCS Computer is saying “yeah, we probably could have come up with some better excuses“.
Some notable Bowl Game facts, via the BCS Football website,
–College bowls will pay out $187 million this season and $2.1 billion over the next decade. In the past five years, they have paid out $820 million.
–Bowl games generate increased donations, valuable visibility, and even increases in school enrollment applications. In addition, it can also increase long-term revenues in licensing, endorsement money, TV contracts, and season ticket sales.
–College bowls generate $1.1 billion in annual economic impact (excluding exposure).
–The recent addition of bowl games has provided opportunities for more schools to participate in the bowl experience. That means more student athletes, coaches, cheerleaders, band members, halftime performers, administrators, alumni, college football fans, and communities can be a part of this unforgettable experience. This season about 5,600 student-athletes, 11,000 band members, 1,100 cheerleaders, 50,000 – 100,000 performers, and millions of fans and community members will be a part of this experience.
Yeah, it looks like we’re stuck with hoping with the BCS gets it right.
ESPN: BCS Coordinator says increased parity won’t encourage a BCS change
This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 7:04 pm and is filed under Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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As you correctly wrote, the BCS is all about money. Recognizing that, there is one way to get their attention. Simply stop watching the BCS games. As soon as the TV ratings drop and advertising revenue drops commensurately, they will immediately consider instituting a playoff.
Join my sons and I: BCS = Boycott Crummy System.