Obama Wants Playoffs

While the president welcomed the Florida Gators football team into the White House to congratulate them on their BCS national championship win, he stepped right back into the controversy in college football and continued to push for a change of rules to the Bowl Game Series playoff system, despite opposition from university presidents and NCAA executives.

“I don’t want to stir up controversy.  You guys are the national champions — I’m not backing off the fact we need a playoff system.  But I have every confidence that you guys could have beat anybody else.  And so we’ll see how that plays itself out.”

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/04/obama-risks-gat.html

New blood coming to BCS as Big East, Pac-10 bosses retiring

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2009-04-22-bcs-new-blood_N.htm

Powerful commissioners Mike Tranghese of the Big East and Tom Hansen of the Pacific-10 — key figures from the inception of the BCS in 1998 — are retiring July 1.

“They’ve both been extremely valuable in terms of the evolution of postseason football since, really, the early ’90s,” said John Swofford, commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference and coordinator of the BCS.

Their replacements, John Marinatto (Big East) and Larry Scott (Pac-10), attended the BCS annual meetings that ended Wednesday to get acclimated to procedures. That’s perhaps a dizzying prospect for Scott, chairman and CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association whose last involvement in college sports was as a Harvard tennis player. Marinatto is a Big East senior associate commissioner.

MWC Commish Craig Thompson pitches playoff at BCS Meeting

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4087617

PASADENA, Calif. — If this were Hollywood, then Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson would have swooped into town, given his “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” speech, and then watched as college football’s conscience-stricken power brokers changed their minds and voted for a playoff.

However, this is Pasadena, home of the Rose Bowl, 15 miles and five BCS games away from Hollywood. Thompson’s fellow BCS commissioners listened Tuesday morning to his proposal for an eight-team playoff and other changes to the current system. They agreed to take the proposal back to their respective memberships for their spring meetings. They will reconvene in June in Colorado Springs.

And no one expects much to change.

After all, the BCS already has agreed to continue the current format through the 2013 season. ACC commissioner John Swofford, the BCS coordinator, described the BCS’s relationship with its two television networks and four bowls as “very, very stable and in excellent shape.” Yet out of a sense of collegiality, the commissioners agreed to take the MWC proposal back to their schools. Thompson’s presentation, and the subsequent discussion, lasted approximately 90 minutes.

Economic divide drives debate over Bowl Championship Series

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_college/2009/04/want-proof-there-really-are-two-different-worlds-in-division-i-a-just-consider-that-last-week-trustees-at-the-university-o.html

Want proof there really are two different worlds in Division I-A? Just consider that last week trustees at the University of Alabama approved $6.5 million for football coaches next season. The Tide will spend more on 10 football coaches this fall than 32 non-BCS schools spent on their entire football programs in 2007-08 (the most recent data available – see chart below).

Alabama, one of the richest athletic departments in America, certainly can afford to employ the college football’s highest paid coaching staff. The Tide football program generated $57.3 million in revenue in 2007-08.

Those numbers demonstrate a gap that seems likely to grow wider in this flailing economy. The rich might not necessarily get richer, but the poor will undoubtedly grow poorer. Cuts in budgets will disproportionally affect those already operating in the red.

From desperation comes BCS debate…

The BCS commissioners will gather in Pasadena, Calif. later this month for what are certain to be contentious meetings. Everyone, it seems, wants a say in altering college football’s postseason.

Capitol Hill tackles the BCS

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/05/capitol-hill-tackles-the-bcs/

Proving that no matter is safe from governmental involvement, college football is the latest political football on Capitol Hill.

Three bills have been introduced in the House to blitz the NCAA’s Bowl Championship Series, and Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican, threatens to throw his own penalty flags in Senate hearings later this year. While we sympathize with the senator’s ire that undefeated second- (AP), fourth- (USAT), or sixth- (BCS) ranked University of Utah was denied a championship berth, the legislature hardly has a winning record of solving such complex policy issues.

Congress, however, is seeking comprehensive football reform. The House bills would impose a playoff system, restrict federal funds to colleges and universities with football teams participating in the heinous “bowls,” and ban any mention of the BCS being a “national championship” as false and deceptive advertising. This latter bill might raise uncomfortable questions in international circles about Major League Baseball’s chutzpah in calling its championship the “World” Series, but we digress.

Utah has BCS Lawsuit in Mind

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4030992

Already fighting off demands for a playoff system from President Barack Obama and leaders of the U.S. Congress, the Bowl Championship Series will soon face a more serious threat: an antitrust lawsuit from the attorney general of Utah that could dismantle its postseason championship scheme.

Mark Shurtleff, the Utah attorney general, is gathering contracts, statistics, economic data and experts, and expects to be able to file suit against the BCS in June.

“From the very first kickoff of the college football season, the BCS uses its monopoly powers to put more than half of the schools at a disadvantage,” Shurtleff said. His investigation comes after an undefeated University of Utah team was relegated to the Sugar Bowl in January with no chance to play for a national championship.