The BCS Question No One Is Asking
This post is from SportsBiz guest blogger Lake The Posts:
ESPN is reportedly the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) sweepstakes winner as FOX respectfully bowed out of the bidding process yesterday.
Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal reported the "Worldwide Leader" has offered the BCS $500 million for four years beginning in 2011. This trumps the existing $330 million four-year Fox deal by $40million per year. Most college football pundits are asking " how will ESPN change the BCS (while network CFOs must be asking "what economic downturn")? I'm asking why no one is asking why the NCAA let go of this cash cow franchise?
College football is under the jurisdiction of the NCAA along with every other sanctioned varsity college sport. Yet, the Division I college football postseason is under the jurisdiction of 11 NCAA Division I conference commissioners, Notre Dame's athletic director and a presidential oversight committee (comprised of the likes of Notre Dame, Pitt, Penn State, and Oregon to name a few) simply known to the masses as the BCS. It must be all about the money, right? Why is it, then, Myles Brand's NCAA team is fit to run point for a March Madness that fetches approximately $400 Million per YEAR in CBS rights fees alone, more than the entire Fox BCS contract?
Perhaps President-elect and hoops junkie, Barack Obama can convene a special investigation. Oh yeah, he's already jokingly threatened to misuse taxpayer's dollars by doing so. In fairness, Republican Mike Simpson (Idaho) co-sponsored a bill to do just that; investigate the BCS and it garnered support from both sides of the aisle including Democrat Neil Abercrombie (Hawaii), before their constituents balked.
No doubt, the co-sponsors shared a common bond of BCS slights in the past, but it appears it will take a Boise State-esque miracle against the Oklahoma-esque incumbents to hit paydirt for a college football playoff. Even the ironically named Knight Commission (it is named for its founders John & James Knight, NOT Myles Brand's nemesis Bobby Knight), a non-profit panel of collegiate influencers, has recommended the only way to minimize the widening gap of profit "haves" versus "have nots" is to return jurisdiction to the NCAA.
The eye-popping offer by ESPN only exacerbates the power of the most enigmatic decision-making braintrust in major sports. They're so smart, they have created a brand that essentially has a target-less head as the point person is given a powerless title (BCS Coordinator) and rotated every two years (ACC Commissioner, John Swofford is the current coordinator).
If you're mad at the NFL you take it out on Roger Goodell, if you're ticked at the NBA, David Stern gets the darts, but if you want to gripe about the BCS, most fans don't even know where to target their angst. Have no fear college football fans, in just three years, when the ESPN cross-platform content machine starts cranking out BCS propaganda, we will have Bob Ley and "Outside the Lines" to serve the public and ask the question that no one is asking.
Lake The Posts is an anonymous site dedicated to die-hard Northwestern football fans. The name pays homage to the pre-Barnett era Cats, whose rare wins were marked by ripping down the goal posts, marching them down Central Street and tossing them into Lake Michigan (a feat known as "laking"). You can find the blog at www.laketheposts.com.
