How much you want to bet that a 2 loss USC team is more likely to get into a BCS bowl than two undefeated non-BCS schools?
At least one of the non-BCS teams will play in a BCS bowl if they're in the top-12 at the end of the year, right?
Yes. One whole non-BCS team will play in a meaningless game and possibly end up ranked 2 or 3 at the end of the year. While we're at it let's make a rule that says people that don't go Ivy League colleges can only become vice president, but never president because they don't have to compete against the best of the best, even if they have a history of doing better than them in most competitive situations. It's the exact same thing.
Taking the political analogy out of the equation what needs to be remembered is that the entire bowl system is nothing but a huge, collegiate, political, money making scam and that the biggest of the bowls that pay out the big bucks(those in the BCS) want teams that travel well, have followings that spend big bucks, and will draw the television ratings.
Boise State and TCU will never bring the ratings, the people or the spending money that USC or LSU or even Notre Dame would. The BCS isn't about being fair to undefeated non BCS conference teams. It's about making huge gobs of cash and Boise State and TCU will not bring that cash. Yes, the BCS does attempt to crown a national champion but here's the kicker. The BCS doesn't give a hoot if the best and most deserving team wins the national championship. All they care about is in crowning a champion, everyone is making millions.
I 95% agree with you.
But here's where I'm not as sure. Do you think adjusted for inflation the BCS is making the NCAA more money than they were before?
Do you think that they lost money on the Hawaii/Georgia Fiesta Bowl? I mean Hawaii has got to be a team that doesn't travel well.
Also if it were really 100% about money (and I totally agree it 99% is) than I strongly suspect they are leaving millions if not billions (yep you heard right) on the table by not having a tourney ala the bball tourney. I can't imagine for a second that the basketball teams would make more by having 30 elite games, and only one that counts, and no tourney.
I have two best friends since childhood. One is a Sports Information Director at an ACC school. The other is an Assistant Athletic Director at a Big 12 school. We were inseparable as kids and when they can get time after the bowls and in the early summer, they come home and we talk shop, shop for them, incessantly over beers at the local tavern or on the links. This BCS conversation is one we talk about ALL THE TIME. The simple fact is this, there isn't a person associated in athletics at a Divsion 1 playing football university in America that doesn't want a playoff system.
Oh, in public they say what they have to say or what they feel will get them in the least amount of trouble, but behind the scenes, there isn't a coach, athletic direct, sports information director or player at a top 40 school that doesn't want a playoff system.
But what the athletes and athletic personnel want and what the deans, presidents, and higher ups that are the power brokers at the university, what the people who run the bowls and parades and festivities associated with the bowls and what the networks want are completely different things. Too many extremely high paying yearly jobs, too much university revenue, too much money is invested in the current structure that getting the people who have the power to elicit change will never happen because there's no guarantee for those people that the monet stream will continue if everything is changed.
Don't forget how the conference money structure works for bowls. If a team from a conference makes a bowl the payout for that bowl does not go directly to the team. It goes into a fund that then is divided among all the teams in the conference.
Take the SEC for instance. They are guaranteed the Sugar bowl for the champ if the champ isn't in the National championship game. They will most likely also get an at large BCS team as well this year. They also have guaranteed births to the Music City Bowl, the Independence Bowl, the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, the Outback Bowl, the Capital One bowl, the PapaJohns.com Bowl, the Cotton Bowl and the Liberty Bowl. But even if they don't get an at large BCS berth they still have 8 guaranteed slots every year. Look at the money they get:
Sugar Bowl $17,000,000
Music City Bowl $1,6000,000
Independence Bowl $1,100,000
Chick-Fil-A Bowl $2,400,000
Outback Bowl $3,000,000
Capital One Bowl $4,250,000
PapaJohns.com Bowl $300,000
Cotton Bowl $3,000,000
Liberty Bowl $1,500,000
So without getting and at large BCS berth the SEC conference with 12 teams is guaranteed to split up, at a minimum, $34.15 million every year. Now take into consideration that in the 11 year BCS history the SEC has gotten an at large bid 6 time and probably will again this year. So 60% of the time the SEC is making around about $15,000,000 more or a total, due to bowls of about $50 million or more than $4 million per school. whether they go to a bowl or not.
No way the SEC university presidents decide to shut off that money stream just to properly crown a champion. And it's the same in the ACC, Big 10, Big East, Big 12 and Pac 10.
