Grab a torch and head for the BCS castle
By JIM LITKE, AP Sports Columnist
December 4, 2006
College football fans are either lazy or dumb, or here's a comforting thought, both.
A sport whose postseason was a joke long before the Bowl Championship Series and its predecessors took over in 1992 has no more credibility and just as many conflicts of interest as ever. The national champion is still "mythical" as often as not, one or more deserving teams still get hosed just about every season and coaches with hefty contract bonuses for bowl appearances still vote for which team goes where.
About the only things that have changed during the BCS era is the amount of pseudo-science injected into the process, the size of the take, and the number of cronies and apologists who get a cut. Does that count as progress?
Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive, who serves as BCS coordinator this season under a rotating power-sharing agreement between the big-money conferences, pointed out Sunday that attendance and ratings were up as well, and that regular-season games that once were largely regional affairs now generated national interest.
"I think the BCS had really made college football's regular season even more exciting than ever," Slive said Sunday, at the end of a ginned-up, half-hour special on Fox Sports, the BCS' newest TV partner and water-carrier.
"But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't continue to look at it to see if there isn't a different format that might serve the game better," he added, "and I look forward to that kind of dialogue."
Slive and his pals back at headquarters already know what that "different format" is -- and have from the beginning: a playoff of some sort -- and that might be the reason to dislike the BCS crowd most of all. They're going to buckle sooner rather than later, almost certainly before the current four-year deal with Fox has run its course, but not before enough of the angered citizenry gather outside the castle carrying torches. That's why the so-called "plus-one" game that debuts this season was tucked into the new TV deal.
Mad as some people are about Michigan being the recipient of this season's "life-isn't-fair" award, and despite polls that have shown nine out of 10 fans, most players and even coaches want a playoff, the movement still hasn't reached critical mass.
Incredibly, that didn't happen in 2001, either, when Oregon finished No. 2 in both polls but lost the computer battle; or in 2003, when it was a clearly superior Southern California team that got the short end of the tape; or in 2004, when undefeated Auburn was sent home with a consolation prize.
The rationale offered most often for letting the BCS continue to call the shots is that it makes the regular season a de facto playoff already and thus every weekend is meaningful. If that were true, what's the argument against crowning Ohio State the champion right now?
The only other Division I-A team to go through the season unbeaten was Boise State, but under the twisted logic that the BCS specializes in, the Broncos never really were in contention for a national title and aren't about to complain. It took the threat of legal action by a number of previously locked-out mid-major programs just to get a shot at any of the four top-dollar BCS bowls, and apparently that was hush money well spent.
The last piece of this year's puzzle will be available for public viewing Monday, when the votes in the final USA Today coaches poll are unveiled. It's been the object of much conjecture and plenty of shenanigans in the past, and we already know that Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, whose team handed Michigan it's only loss of the season -- by three points at Ohio Stadium -- chose to opt out.
And cited, of all things, a conflict of interest.
"After consultation with my director of athletics, Gene Smith, and based upon our unique position in the BCS standings, I believe it is only fair that we not participate (in) the final poll," Tressel said.
Funny that he didn't have a problem before this, or that he'd care either way, since his bonus -- reportedly $200,000 for reaching the championship game, plus a standing offer to renegotiate his contract -- is already locked up. Then again, that's the way the BCS makes a lot of people feel: conflicted.
Florida coach Urban Meyer, to take another example, has been talking loud and long about a playoff for some time. But that didn't stop him from lobbying relentlessly for BCS votes since Ohio State beat Michigan two weekends ago, because the Wolverines held onto the No. 2 spot until Sunday. And he resumed the call for a playoff -- right after Florida squeaked past Michigan by a hundredth of a point in the BCS standings.
"We're beyond the fact of do we need a playoff," Meyer said. "It's now, can we get one."
The short answer is yes. But the better question is why college football fans are willing to wait so long.
Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org.