BCS: Bizarre, Crappy, System
College Football, Rich Old White People July 8th. 2009, 4:45pm
Stephen Montemayor, one of our three interns, is a senior at the University of Kansas and the sports editor of the University Daily Kansan.
The BCS has always struck me as a gift-wrapped talking point that arrives on cue each holiday season and is greeted by fleets of anyone who can operate a keyboard. We bloggers, media and fans rush to tackle the debate as if it was resting under an unearthed pine tree and we were its footy pajama-clad recipients.
We had a little Christmas in July with Tuesday’s Senate hearing. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R, Utah) is talking to anyone that’ll listen and writing for anyone who needs space filled.
Tuesday’s hearing – titled “The Bowl Championship Series: Is It Fair And In Compliance With Antitrust Law?†– only further stoked the fire. Claiming the BCS violates the country’s Sherman Antitrust Act, Hatch called for a Justice Dept. investigation into the organization.
Hatch stopped short of offering his own playoff proposal, instead insisting he would like to see that hashed out by college football. But should no action be taken, as he expects, then he’ll consider legislation to make everything right and true. Just like it was back in…well…wait…
So here were politicos from Alabama (Auburn, 2004) and Idaho (Boise State, 2006) when their teams got the shaft? Would Hatch be fighting the good fight against the BCS if his Utah Utes went 5-7 instead of 12-0?
This is unquestionably the most spirited fight yet against the BCS with both sides landing some blows to write home about.
* Air Force Coach Troy Calhoun and Texas Rep. Joe Barton have likened the BCS to communism
* SI’s Stewart Mandel brings the noise, calling the Senate hearings a â€waste of time†and saying that the alternative produced by a an (improbable) timely anti-BCS lawsuit wouldn’t be a playoff, but instead a dissolution of the BCS and a return to the muddled pre-1998 system
* Spencer Tillman of CBS Sports is unsatisfied by the BCS’ annual “reviewing†of proposals to pacify critics.
Let’s usher in a Final Four playoff and be done with it. Anything more runs the risk of desensitizing an annually electric regular season. [Ed. Noooooo! We demand a playoff! It can be done!]
But that’s just me. And this conversation likely has a good deal of legs left.
29 Responses to “BCS: Bizarre, Crappy, System”
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July 8th, 2009 at 4:50 PM
TBL: Totally Bullshitserverpage Loading
tbl: REALLY bad today
new server>>>>new layout
July 8th, 2009 at 4:58 PM
Funny to hear a Kansas student bitching about the BCS when the system allowed the Jayhawks to backdoor their way into the Orange Bowl.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:00 PM
False
July 8th, 2009 at 5:01 PM
We bloggers, media and fans rush to tackle the debate as if it was resting under an unearthed pine tree and we were its footy pajama-clad recipients.
Someone has been reading a bit too much of Ty Duffy.
The BCS is the unanswerable question. I don’t see any substantial changes anytime soon.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:03 PM
If there were still going to be local sports columnists in five years I’d say this kid was the next Woody Paige.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:03 PM
Can we get someone who’s actually been to a real football game?
July 8th, 2009 at 5:05 PM
Where is Cursed to dissect that opening paragraph? Yikes.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:07 PM
They had a treat and got to see Colt in person last year.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:07 PM
We bloggers, media and fans rush to tackle the debate as if it was resting under an unearthed pine tree and we were its footy pajama-clad recipients.
Please return to the analogy department and get a new one because this one sucked.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:07 PM
No, that was actually true.
Great line.
Biggest bullshit argument of them all.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:08 PM
Given the present television contracts and possible emerging conference channels likened to the B10 Network I doubt we’ll ever see a playoff.
Besides in a 4 team playoff teams 5 & 6 would pitch a fit anyway – nothing changes.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:09 PM
I thought the whole point of journalism classes was to teach people NOT to write like that.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:10 PM
Besides in a 4 team playoff teams 5 & 6 would pitch a fit anyway – nothing changes.
Agreed, but four at least promises that the REALLY deserving teams will get a shot.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:14 PM
Oh and fuck Utah, thanks for the strip mines – salt – and vast expanses of jack shit terrain.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:16 PM
Exactly. All of these people who argue that a playoff will stop the bitching miss the point. We could use a 20 teams playoff and team 21 will bitch, but if we have an 8 team playoff, we know that all teams that truly deserve it will get there shot. I can live with #9 complainig, but an undefeated #3 being left out is bullshit.
I wonder if the Big 10 is pissed about the SEC’s deal with ESPN and CBS. They are getting paid like 2 billion dollars over the course of 10-15 years and they don’t have to pay all of the costs that go into having your own network.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:20 PM
Who in holy hell unearths their Christmas tree? Do you put the presents around the root ball?
Kid, you lost me at hello.
plus, here’s a typo you should fix – So here were politicos from Alabama
July 8th, 2009 at 5:22 PM
I can live with #9 complainig, but an undefeated #3 being left out is bullshit.
as ever, I agree completely with Gods.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:23 PM
The BCS is like the Gooch from Diff’rent Strokes.
That is all.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:31 PM
Clown is right! If there were a playoff, KU would have had a chance to win the National Championsips in football AND basketball. Thanks, clown, for being another proponent in the playoff argument.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:34 PM
/fixed
And you may want to tag this as college FOOTBALL, not basketball.
/nitpicking
July 8th, 2009 at 5:41 PM
The BCS: the plain chick at the bar at 2 AM.
You can’t do any better. You don’t want to do any worse. You’re certain you’re not going to like the results, but there’s the odd surprise.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:55 PM
In his defense, TBL does the tags.
July 8th, 2009 at 6:17 PM
Yesterday Tony Barnhart had that a BCS lawsuit is basically a nonstarter. The NCAA did their homework and made sure they didn’t violate the Sherman Act.
/Barnhart interview?
//pleasepleaseplease
///one thing Gods and I agree on
July 8th, 2009 at 6:24 PM
Can someone explain to these two people that the BCS is basically the opposite of communism?
July 8th, 2009 at 6:24 PM
Fixed. I didn’t write it, so it’s not ssp.
/still a bannin’
July 8th, 2009 at 6:27 PM
Its already insufferable discussing who #2 is, which is generally confined to 2-4 pretty good teams Under no circumstances to I want to haggle over who number #9 is, you’re talking about 7-10 average teams who would claim to have a case, just kill me now.
July 8th, 2009 at 6:47 PM
Hey hey hey. That was technically a complete sentence, no need to damn the young man with such a comparison.
If he was Woody, he’d have written something like:
BCS?
CBS.
See? BS.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:51 PM
My favorite BCS Hyporcisy story:
In 2003, USC is crying to everyone who’ll listen. They’re even creating publicity stunts like somebody throwing a football into a giant computer. Even a year, Matt Leinart is interviewed on ESPN with a “F the BCS” t-shirt.
However, after the 2004 season, when USC won the BCS title and an undefeated Auburn got the shaft, USC didn’t shed any tears for them. And the ESPN talking heads were not outraged because “this year the BCS got it right.”
So, in summary. BCS: Bad. But good when it spits your name out of the computer.
July 9th, 2009 at 2:07 AM
Intern Montemayor thanks at last for writing about real sports again. Great piece, and I would go along with your recommendation of a (Final) four-team playoff, but there is PLENTY of disagreement as to how those four teams are selected.
I say use rotating pair of two of the bowl games with BCS #1 playing #4 and #2 playing #3.
For many however, that is either not simple enough or objectionable otherwise.