BCS weenies tell Congress the obvious

It would not literally kill the bowl games.

But it would shatter the veneer of success that a bowl game seems to provide for any team outside of the top eight or top 16. College football programs use bowl games as a way of showing progress, and as means of schmoozing boosters on the Riverwalk, or at DisneyWorld, or whatever.

It's much harder to sell some booster on the idea "hey, we made the playoff once in the last seven years!" vs. "hey, we've been to seven straight bowls."

Once you move the line of success to "in the playoff" you begin to redefine how rich people measure progress. And since those rich people are the only thing keeping the gluttonous FBS from collapsing, conference presidents are in no real hurry to alter things.

A playoff would also mean a full stop ending to conference title games. I mean, they'd be over. No way the SEC risks, for example, an 11-1 Florida losing its spot in a playoff with a loss to a 8-4 Auburn team in the SEC title game. No way.

People presume college football is alive and well. But if you prick it with a playoff, it's dead in 15 years. Completely dead. Too many athletic departments have too many $40 million "trainng complexes" in the works for it to be any other way.

 

When you hear this stuff, don't you wonder how clueless they are about banking, international finance, terrorism, defense?
I mean, if you're calling Sammy Sosa "Sammy Sooser" -- how much can you possibly know about the world?

 

Or maybe because they are concerned with real problems in the world they don't much care about Sammy Sosa...or the BCS

 

I'm too cynical to buy that argument.

 

Or maybe they don't take the time to properly prep for the hearings they call - whethr they focus on terrorism, finance or steroids - because all they're concerned about is getting their mugs on TV.

 

Sorry...I gotta agree with twoback on that.

 

Meanwhile, a Texas Congressman compares the BCS to Communism:

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ap-bcschampionship-congress&prov=ap&type=lgns

Yep, a system that oppressed and killed millions of people is comparable to college football schools not wanting a playoff system.

Looks like somebody is stuck in 1952.

 

Knowing the part of the state he represents I can say that the 1952 comment is more accurate than you realize.

 

Wow, and he made a joke that the BCS should be called "BS." Never heard that before. :

 

Better not tell this guy the NFL is a model socialist organization, with all TV revenue shared equally, a salary cap, a player draft that limits direct competiton for labor, etc.

 

I hope every Congressperson wasting their time on this loses their next election — even if they're all Republicans. Just STFU and focus on something — anything — that matters.

 

That the NCAA hoops tourney hasn't killed the NIT and we've even seen two other tournaments launched in recent years, pretty much makes me believe that bowls would continue with a playoff.
What's the lowest ranked team going into a bowl game to end up as number 1? A 4, maybe?
It's not like a ninth ranked team goes into a bowl game thinking if things fall just right they could finish no. 1. Would I miss the Rose Bowl? Yeah - but its not like the Orange Bowl is played in the Orange Bowl any more, or the Cotton Bowl will be played in the Cotton Bowl any more.