[NU Sports] I don't care about about BCS $$

Fri Jun 5 09:09:41 CDT 2009

Despite how much fans have complained about the BCS/bowls/polls/etc.,
college football is more popular than ever and the Big Ten, in particular,
is raking in a ton of money (that gets divided equally amongst its member
schools, which therefore benefits NU directly).  The controversy itself
drives a good amount of publicity and instead of driving fans away seems to
bring more in.

Regarding the Rose Bowl being forced into this situation - it's probably
directly due to the fact that the Rose Bowl has its own contract with the
Big Ten/Pac 10, and then in turn has a separate agreement with the rest of
the BCS.  That probably allowed the BCS to change the bowl selection order
without the Rose Bowl/Big Ten/Pac 10's direct consent - forcing the bowl
into the last bowl selection spot and therefore getting "stuck" with a
non-BCS representative in a given circumstance (which is likely to continue
now that a non-BCS team has been in 3 straight years and 4 times this
decade).  I know in the past the BCS at-large bowl selection order has
changed - initially it was by payout (highest payout first, usually giving
the Rose a high pick given that the payout is large) - then by a rotation.

In the end, though, while we as fans can have our opinions - remember that
college football is all about money and power, and the BCS conferences hold
all the power and money and aren't about to give it up by either giving up
money by eliminating the current money-generating scheme or giving up power
by opening up the system to a playoff (at least not anytime soon).  They'll
keep tweaking the system to keep all the parties happy (especially the
government, who they don't want involved at all, but also fans so they keep
paying), but don't expect anything drastic as long as the money and control
are in their hands.  Just be happy that Northwestern is in a position to
benefit from the money and power as a part of the Big Ten.

Jonathan

On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 8:49 AM, Sportsbiz <sportsbiz at gmail.com> wrote:

> All of which is exactly why the Big Ten, Pac-10 and Rose Bowl had
> maintained
> a contract separate from the BCS TV contract all these years.  I would be
> interested in knowing why and how this change got made and exactly what
> pressure was put on them to agree to it since they had the ability to take
> their marbles and go home as the Pac-10 commissioner threatened to do
> several times last year.
>
> As far as I'm concerned the BCS has been a disaster from day one.  It has
> diminshed the value of a conference championship as well as all bowls other
> than the national championship game.  For most schools' fans now, if you
> don't play in the national championship game, then the season was not that
> successful, where before the BCS success was measured by conference
> championships the standard by which I think schools should still be
> measured.  They should also do away with conference championship games,
> another abomination dreamed up by and for television (well, Roy Kramer and
> television).
> Mark
>
> Mark S. Ament
> sportsbiz at gmail.com
> SportsBiz - The Business of Sports
> Illuminated<http://thesportsbizblog.blogspot.com>
> When it comes to sports, you know it's all about the money
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>
>
> On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 7:07 PM, SjT (Stephen J. Truog) <sjtruog at yahoo.com
> >wrote:
>
> >
> > Brad -
> >
> > I actually agree 100% with your analysis - I fully believe the B(C)S is
> the
> > "worst of both worlds" and would love to see the Big Ten and Pac 10 give
> the
> > rest of the conferences a great big mooning and keep our Rose tradition.
> A
> > January trip to Pasadena is better than every other bowl combined! And I
> > also agree that if we do wreck this tradition, it better be for a REAL
> > playoff at the very least.
> >
> > > I couldn't care less whether the Big 10 makes BCS money or
> > > not. I do mildly care that the BCS takes two Big 10 teams,
> > > because in theory that could help Northwestern get a better
> >
> > I agree we usually get screwed anyway by bowl committees - but we do get
> > screwed less when we get two teams in the BCS - plus, the added money for
> > our league (and through sharing, for NU) is never a bad thing.
> >
> > I was simply saying that a lot of people on ESPN were perceiving this as
> a
> > slam at the Big Ten, but I think it winds up actually hurting us far less
> > than the Pac 10 or the Rose Bowl tradition itself.
> >
> > > bothers me. If OSU wins the Big Ten and goes BCS and NU
> > > comes in second and winds up in the Barf Bowl while East
> > > Carolina, SMU or Idaho is on Colorado Boulevard because of
> > > this new policy, who cares about BCS money?
> >
> > Absolute agreement. Like I said, look no further than the Sugar and
> > especially Orange (or the Cotton) to see how much the BCS can destroy a
> > grand tradition. The Rose has avoided that for the most part (and the
> last
> > big change - adding the fifth B(C)S game - actually helped Pasadena keep
> > this by not having to have the title game replace the Rose Bowl).
> >
> > Don't throw that away, Rose Bowl committee!
> >
> > GO CATS!!!
> > -SjT
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
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Jonathan W. Hodges
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