Obama Wants Playoffs

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