Why Congress' latest BCS hearing will be a complete waste of time
I was initially reluctant when my editor asked me last week to write a column previewing Tuesday's Senate Antitrust Subcommittee hearing on the BCS. Between writing a book about the politics of college football two years ago, chronicling SEC commissioner Mike Slive's ultimately anticlimactic quest last year to adopt a plus-one system and continually reaffirming my long-held, albeit unpopular, anti-playoff stance, it seems I've developed a reputation among some as a "shill" for the BCS.
Believe me, I'm no fan of the BCS, though perhaps for different reasons than the playoff proponents. The 11-year-old system, which is contractually scheduled to run until at least 2014, has irreparably destroyed the century-old tradition of college bowl games by moving them away from New Year's Day, watering down the matchups and stripping the individual bowls of their uniqueness. When addressing the real reasons behind the system's existence, BCS leaders have been continually evasive and often disingenuous with the public, masking their largely fiscally driven creation as some noble cause that benefits academia. Meanwhile, in rejecting the plus-one, they failed to address the sport's rapidly changing landscape, one in which it has become harder than ever to authoritatively distinguish two elite teams at the end of a season.
Cont'd ...