None of it matters.
The cash matters, and that's about it.
So the BCS has produced a re-match between two teams that are - without any real argument - no worse than 1, 2 or 3 in the country.
Somebody had to lose out. Sorry, Oklahoma State.
Now, let's move onto to the bigger story. When are we going to get an actual, Division I football playoff?
Four teams, 8 teams, 16 teams. Max.
Bracket this bitch up, and let's play, right?
Well, until the financial house of cards upon which the entire "bowl system" is built, gets toppled by consumer indifference, nothing is going to change.
The system is profitable, for the people running the system.
Even though it's a complete sham for many of the schools.
The prime example is UConn last year, which took a multi-million dollar bath last January for the "priviledge" of making a BCS Bowl.
People were tweeting on Saturday about how Houston losing was going to "cost" the conference potentially $14 million in BCS revenue. Oh really? If Houston saw how many tickets the BCS would make them purchase at gunpoint, full price, they might have blown a gasket.
I'm not so sure Houston and C-USA didn't dodge a major financial bullet by missing the BCS, their wounded pride not withstanding.
I just watched Kirk Herbstreit wondering about the Virginia Tech "at large" selection for the Sugar Bowl, saying while he knows "they will bring alot of fans" he quickly added "is this what this is all about."
Duh. Yes.
Has been for about, oh, forever.
So sure, VaTech will travel their proud fan base to New Orleans after the holidays. And so will Michigan fans, thankful to be back in a meaningful bowl game again, for the first time since 2006.
And the register will ring. And nothing will change.
If you go to any of these games. If you purchase a ticket, either directly, or on the secondary market. If you get a free ticket, and pay for parking. If you do all that but ride in somebody else's car, and only buy one tiny soda at the game.
Well then, congrats. You have helped feed the beast. The system that will not die.
The system that has to resort to complex, byzantine computer formulas and flawed "human" polls, to give us ONE, little measly game of importance in the sport's "post-season."
Don't complain to me about "who got screwed." You then, are the ones giving the BCS powers the tube of lube.
Total joke. BCS is done. Finally bring on the playoff.
ReplyDeleteStunning that in the FCS Division BCE anarchy reigns while in the FBS division they just completed the second round of their playoffs. Total teams in the playoffs? Not 4, not 8, not 16, but 20! Yes, that's right 20 teams! A 20 team playoff in the FCS would include LSU, Bama, OK St, Stanford, oregon, Arkansas, Boise St., K St., SC, Wisconsin, Va Tech, Michigan, Baylor, Georgia, Mich St., Oklahoma, Houston, TCU, Clemson, and Nebraska. Yeah Penn St at 9-3 gets left out but would there really be that much crying over that?
ReplyDeleteYour use of commas, sucks.
ReplyDeleteSuperb.
ReplyDeleteLSU Wins = They beat a team in their own 1/2 a conference, twice.
Alabama Wins = They are 1 - 1 against a team.
Zero satisfaction in either case.
Worst. Episode. Ever.
I feel dirty... Thanks BCS, you blow... I will NOT be watching the "national championship" game... that is the only way, I (and we) can rebel.
ReplyDeleteI must disagree Czabe, Alabama is no better than 6th or 7th..... They did not win their conference, hell they didn't even win their division... In a system that strictly awards winning, they get rewarded for loosing.
Just remember a few years back when Michigan and Ohio St were 1/2, the clamor to NOT see that match up again. It was a very entertaining game, with scoring and all the stuff that makes football great... Now we get a game that will suck, a replay of a mind sucking, game setting back 9-6 OT match up...
I hope many of the fans, such as myself, will walk away from the travishamocrity.
16 team playoff, the remaining 50 bowl eligible teams can still play bowls, they would make more money than they would know what to do with it....
+1 Scott Clouthier
ReplyDeleteI am certainly pro playoff in Div. 1-A football, but the BCS worked this season. At least for the BCS Championship Game. Always good when the two best teams get to play for the national championship.
ReplyDeleteBooooooo! Liar. Steve Czaban. Liar. Boo.
ReplyDeleteWell, maybe not a liar, but misleading at best. The "huge computers" gave OSU the edge...but in an effort to ensure we take no chance of having any sort of objective assessment in this formula, the system was adjusted (read: rigged) a few years ago, so that the pollsters could manipulate the outcome if they didn't like the direction in which the predetermined formula was steering the ship.
Much in the same fashion, mind you, that they wiped the "no more than two teams from the same conference in BCS games" provision off the board. Thus providing the guarantee before any game was even played this past weekend that LSU and Bama would play for the BCS title, even if Georgia would have happened to have won the SEC championship.
College football has no value beyond the entertainment of weekly point spread wagers, and a "national" title in college football is akin to the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy...nothing but make-believe fantasy.
Spare us from the "if you go, you feed the beast" high horse. If you watch on TV, you feed the beast as well. There's more than one way this nasty SOB eats.
The college football bowl scheme makes an ACORN voter registration drive appear to be on the up and up. Rest easy though. A playoff, even if only a four team model, will be part of the deal once the current contract expires. More would be better, but you have to eat the beast one bite at a time.