[NU Sports] Re: Utah and the playoff ...

[Jonathan Hodges]

The thing is, with the formation of the BCS, that is essentially what the
commissioners of the BCS conferences did.  They created a new pool of money,
providing each league at least $14 million a year - plus another $4.5
million for 3-4 of those conferences.  That is exactly the reason that there
is no playoff (even a Plus One) in I-A/FBS football - because the BCS
conference teams hold all the power and money and to go to a playoff would
require the say of all of the membership (120 schools) which would likely
result in more equitable revenue sharing.  The BCS is purely the result of
the rules of the current system that allow bowl games and give conferences
and teams the power to negotiate their own contracts for those games.

I would argue that the non-BCS I-A/FBS teams generally benefit from the
current system as well, and the BCS teams need them.  All of those
nonconference games early in the season see a lot of money changing hands,
with BCS schools paying the "mid majors" upwards of $300k for a win-able
home game, as the BCS school rakes in way more than that in gate receipts,
sponsorships, and TV revenue.  This is why there has been a steady stream of
schools making their way to I-A/FBS in recent years (although there is
currently a moratorium in place on bumping more teams up) - because even
smaller schools with absolutely no football tradition (Florida
International, Florida Atlantic, Western Kentucky, etc.) can make a good
amount of money on I-A/FBS football.

The fact is that the current system is all about money, and it's mostly
concentrated in the BCS conferences - and it will likely stay that way
unless the government steps in.  The NCAA won't do anything because it's run
by those benefitting from the system - the schools.  And fans can argue all
they want, but money speaks a lot louder than the talking heads on TV.

If one wants a truly equitable system in college football, take the 120
I-A/FBS teams, divide them into 10 12-team conferences with an even
distribution of teams based on recent success on the field, split them all
into 6-team divisions, and stage conference championship games that lead
into a 16-team national playoff (10 conference winners + 6 at-large).  The
NCAA could also control all scheduling for non-conference matchups to make
more equitable schedules.  Of course if you really want such a system you
should just turn off your TV on Saturdays and instead tune in on Sunday
where there's something called the NFL that has such a bland system, where
"any given Sunday" means that everything in the league is just about the
same because it's all dictated by the league.

Enjoy college football for what it is - something unique.  The conference
affiliations, traditions, bowls, polls, etc. all make it uniquely different
from every other sport out there and the fact that we as fans continue to
pour more and more money into it shows that the system is effective
entertainment and effective at building communities at schools.

Jonathan


On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 11:02 AM, Arthur Miller <artmiller1 at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> I think the article is ridiculous.  Everyone's a victim, it seems.  Well,
> I'm not buying the argument that a 12-0 team is always better than a 12-1
> team.
>
>
> If you ask me, the BCS conferences need to separate from the rest of I-A
> and form our own football subdivision.  There are too many teams in I-A as
> it is, and this a large part of the difficulty in finding an equitable way
> of determining a champion.  As a general rule, the BCS programs were playing
> football 100 years ago, and made this sport into the incredible spectacle
> that it is today.  Why should they have to share revenues with programs like
> Buffalo and Central Florida that have been in I-A for only a few years?
>
>
> That's my 2 cents.
>
>
> > Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 07:25:09 -0800> From: thehaze at earthlink.net> To:
> nwu-sports at tssi.com> Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Re: Utah and the playoff
> ...> > A terrific column - I agree with it 100%> > -----Original
> Message-----> >From: "SjT (Stephen J. Truog)" <sjtruog at yahoo.com>> >Sent:
> Jan 6, 2009 7:15 PM> >To: nwu-sports at tssi.com> >Subject: [NU Sports] Re:
> Utah and the playoff ...> >> >When Obama and Utah agree on something, you
> KNOW the B(C)S is a bad idea and needs changing.:)> >> >Aside from the
> typical Big Ten bashing, John Feinstein had an interesting column on it in
> the Washington Post today:> >> >
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/06/AR2009010600092.html>
> >
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-- 
Jonathan W. Hodges
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