Obama Wants Playoffs

Is the BCS supposed to be fair?

I’m serious.

I get nervous when politicians, media, and college presidents start throwing around words like “fair.” It is a moving definition. Some people think that if their neighbor drives a nicer car than them that it’s not fair. The term is too vague.

But however it is defined I must ask again: Where is it written that the BCS is SUPPOSED to be fair?

Here is the problem that I have with Mr. Fishel’s sometimes breathless argument:

No. 1: All of these numbers he cites are a matter of public record. Nobody has to shine a light on anything. It’s all out there. The six BCS equity conferences that put this deal together in 1998 and marketed it and grew it make a lot more money from this deal than the other five conferences. It was designed that way in 1998 by the television networks who were putting up the money. No news there.

No. 2: I want the five non-equity conferences to get as much money as they can out of the BCS pool. Keep pushing. Keep negotiating. Keep reminding the other conferences of your value. The Mountain West has a chance to play its way in to an automatic bid in 2012 and 2013.

But to say these conferences are the victims of “revenue discrimination” (I’ve got to write that one down for future use) is to presume they had a pre-existing claim to the BCS money pool that is somehow being denied.

http://blogs.ajc.com/barnhart-college-football/2010/05/27/is-the-bcs-supposed-to-be-fair/?cxntfid=blogs_barnhart_college_football

Bowl Championship Series executive director Bill Hancock has responded to Capitol Hill as Congress possibly looks to take action regarding a college football playoff. In a letter to Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Hancock says higher education officials should be responsible for decisions on college athletics.

“I believe that decisions about college football should be made by university presidents, athletics directors, coaches and conference commissioners rather than by members of Congress,” Hancock wrote.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2010/05/bcs-executive-director-bill-hancock-responds-to-capitol-hill/1

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said he would love to meet with President Obama and lay out his case for why a playoff would be bad for college football.

“I think it would be way cool,” Hancock said Wednesday. “If the opportunity presented itself, we would go in a minute. But he has so much else to do, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. He hasn’t said anything about it since Florida went to get its trophy (in 2009).”

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/04/bcs-boss-would-love-a-face-to-face-with-obama.html

With the Bowl Championship Series meetings set to begin tomorrow in Scottsdale, Ariz., I had a chance to catch up with executive director Bill Hancock to ask about what is on the agenda and how conference expansion would affect the BCS.

Hancock said expansion was not a topic on the agenda, though that all could change. The Chicago Tribune reported an accelerated timetable for Big Ten expansion has emerged. High-ranking Big Ten officials were expected to meet Sunday afternoon in Washington D.C. to discuss expansion. If they came out of those meetings with a mandate to expand, commissioner Jim Delany could use the BCS meetings to notify other conferences of their intentions.

Hancock was mum on his expectations for expansion, but did say, “I don’t think conference expansion will change the attitude of the schools about a playoff. It’s very clear that the schools and conferences are not moving toward a playoff and I just can’t see expansion changing that.”

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_college/2010/04/bcs-chief-bill-hancock-expansion-wont-change-attitude-toward-playoff.html

A major college football bowl game’s donation to a political candidate is an improper use of its money, a group said Friday.

The Fiesta Bowl, one of four major Bowl Championship Series (BCS) games, gave former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) $2,000 to help retire his legal debt in advance of his primary challenge of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)

PlayoffPAC, a political group that wants a playoff system to replace the BCS, said Friday that the contribution should spark an investigation into the bowl’s political activity.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/fundraising/92783-anti-bcs-group-upset-with-bowls-donation-to-hayworth

Q: You’ve obviously coached at Division I-A at Auburn, but also at other levels. Could a playoff system work in I-A?

A: I think playoffs would be great for Division I-A football. It’s been great for everyone else. I think you should have them. There’s no reason we cannot have bowls included and use those in the process of having playoffs. There’s no question Division I-A football should be played in a playoff. That’s the only way to have a national champion.

Q: How would you organize it?

A: You always hear four (teams), but I’m a big proponent that you start at eight. You start at eight, take seven top bowls, you go to the Saturday and Sunday closest to Christmas and you play two games on Saturday, two games on Sunday. So you have the top eight games playing four games in four top bowls, then the four winners play two games on Jan. 1 and the national championship is played on the eighth.

It would be the top seven bowls and, just like the BCS they have now, you would take those bowls or whichever bowls bid for those games. Every year they could rotate those things around. The other dates, the other bowls exist just like the NIT does.

http://www.ajc.com/sports/five-questions-terry-bowden-465350.html

Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski took a shot at college football on Sunday and may have provided testimony for any future lawsuits against the Bowl Championship Series.

Krzyzewski said there was no way a team such as Butler could make it to the championship game in football.

“It’s a completely different animal,” Krzyzewski said. “And they don’t have a system that would allow a smaller school to get into the spotlight with the BCS. They know what the heck they’re doing as far as monopoly.”

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/04/sports/la-sp-0405-ncaa-notes-20100405

Washington » Two high-ranking senators are demanding a peek at the inner workings of college football’s Bowl Championship Series, just the latest move in an ongoing campaign to force changes in the way the national champion is crowned.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the BCS executive director, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Finance Committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said they have “ongoing concerns” that BCS leaders have not been forthcoming in explaining how their system operates.

“Legal and antitrust concerns aside, I think it’s clear that the BCS is fundamentally unfair and harmful to schools, students, college football fans and consumers throughout the country,” Hatch said in a statement. “At the very least, I think the architects of the BCS should provide the public with more information to dispel the notion that the system is explicitly designed to favor certain teams while disfavoring others.”

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14640573

President Barack Obama on Monday welcomed the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) winner Alabama Crimson Tide football team to the White House.

The number one-ranked Tide won its 13th college football national championship in January, soundly defeating the Texas Longhorns by a score of 37-21.

Obama has also expressed displeasure with the BCS system and has voiced support for a playoff system, but the White House declined to invite Boise State.

http://washingtonscene.thehill.com/in-the-know/36-news/2625-obama-welcomes-college-football-champions-to-the-white-house

Big legal troubles could be in store for the college football playoff system that the Utah attorney general says disadvantages his and other states.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said Tuesday that the Bowl Championship Series could face multistate litigation — and even federal antitrust action — over the way the BCS chooses its championship game participants.

“This could be a multi-hundred million lawsuit,” Shurtleff told Legal Newsline, adding that litigation would be a last resort for him. “Ultimately the goal is not to get money but to get them to change the system to be more competitive.”

http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/225870-utah-ag-takes-football-antitrust-case-to-holder-varney