First the BCS screws Texas Christian...now it's costing me readers

[flexmaster33]

So on the eve of the BCS national title game, I wrote a piece describing how the BCS system is a fraud, and that I wouldn't be watching the game Monday night.

Figured I'd get some responses to it since I'm here in Oregon and everyone has been frothing at the bit for over a month. And sure enough I did.

The best was the first one on my machine...a lady screaming that she didn't need my negativity and that columns like these were spoiling the positive feelings that the almighty Ducks had brought to our state. Oh and yes, she was canceling her subscription.

The very next message on the phone, is a lady who knows a starter on the Oregon team and she said my piece was "absolutely right on...it expressed her feelings about the system perfectly." She was a Boise State fan, but would be rooting for the Ducks because she knew the local boy on the roster.

 

[HejiraHenry]

The BCS spared TCU an ass-whipping, for which it should be grateful.

Your reader will be back within 30 days for the grocery ads and obits.

 

[RickStain]

The damn dog bit me, and all I was doing it was taunting it!

 

[Shaggy]

I wonder what percentage of people who say they will cancel their subscription actually do. I bet it's somewhere between 1 and 2 percent.

 

[printdust]

Only on the east and west coasts do you still hear TCU called Texas Christian. It's closer to Texas School for Above Average Football and also the Well to Do on a level just below SMU than it is Christian (yeah, I know it's operated by the Disciples of Christ denomination, but....you don't get the feeling you've stepped onto Baylor's campus when you're there on Friday nights.

 

[JPsT]

you don't get the feeling you've stepped onto Baylor's campus when you're there on Friday nights.

Haven't been to Baylor lately I see.

 

[Brad Guire]

You bite the hand that feeds you ... what do you expect? You're not wrong for writing it, but really, what did you expect?

 

[Versatile]

You're a sports columnist at a paper in Oregon. You didn't watch the Ducks play in the BCS National Championship game.

Something's not adding up. If one of my paper's sports columnists chose to simply ignore the biggest sporting event of the last 30 years for our state, I'd be pretty pissed off.

 

[Flip Wilson]

I wonder what percentage of people who say they will cancel their subscription actually do. I bet it's somewhere between 1 and 2 percent.

My dad cancels his subscription to the local daily and the big-city daily he also gets every couple of years or so. Price goes up, they **** him off about something else, whatever, he cancels and always re-ups a few weeks later. It's really kind of funny, except the part where he tells me the story about why he canceled oh, two or 19 times.

 

[Stitch]

You're a sports columnist at a paper in Oregon. You didn't watch the Ducks play in the BCS National Championship game.

Something's not adding up. If one of my paper's sports columnists chose to simply ignore the biggest sporting event of the last 30 years for our state, I'd be pretty pissed off.

Flex isn't a columnist.

 

[Moderator1]

I wonder what percentage of people who say they will cancel their subscription actually do. I bet it's somewhere between 1 and 2 percent.

Kill 'em with kindness.
My go-to trick when I got that line was to say, "Sir/Ma'am, I'm sorry to hear that. Let me transfer you to circulation ****"

NO, WAIT!

"Well, if you want to cancel, that's how you go about it. I hate to lose you as a reader but I respect your opinion and you've made up your mind so let me transfer you."

NO, WAIT!

I did transfer a few but most just want to vent. I could listen to a lot of venting until the cursing started. Then I'd transfer or hang up.

 

[User 11148]

... and also the Well to Do on a level just below SMU ...

If you've ever seen some of the plays -- e.g., A Tuna Christmas, Tuna Does Vegas, etc. -- they have a lot of fun at SMU's expense. One line I recall is, "We rich folks don't send our kids to reform school. We send them to SMU."

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Why didn't you write about the local boy playing in the BCS title game?

 

[SF_Express]

You're a sports columnist at a paper in Oregon. You didn't watch the Ducks play in the BCS National Championship game.

Something's not adding up. If one of my paper's sports columnists chose to simply ignore the biggest sporting event of the last 30 years for our state, I'd be pretty pissed off.

Flex isn't a columnist.

Well, I'm a bit confused. He might not be a columnist, but he seems to have written a column:

So on the eve of the BCS national title game, I wrote a piece describing how the BCS system is a fraud, and that I wouldn't be watching the game Monday night.

 

[RickStain]

Small-town papers expect writers and editors to poop out bad columns about their opinions on stuff once a week.

 

[flexmaster33]

Why didn't you write about the local boy playing in the BCS title game?

We did have this as well, along with plenty of other Ducks coverage, including a large Special Section the issue before the game. I just had one column challenging the BCS format that caused a minor stir. Perhaps, I should have written some fluff about Oregon's magical season. :)

 

[Ace]

Why didn't you write about the local boy playing in the BCS title game?

We did have this as well, along with plenty of other Ducks coverage, including a large Special Section the issue before the game. I just had one column challenging the BCS format that caused a minor stir. Perhaps, I should have written some fluff about Oregon's magical season. :)

I don't have a problem with the BCS format -- just with the fact that it exists at all.

 

[Mystery Meat II]

Two problems with your hypothesis:

1. BCS didn't cost you readers. You took what by your own admission was a controversial stand, and people reacted accordingly. That's what you wanted, right? And certainly I'm not going to watch the game because I don't approve of the BCSin the heart of the fan base of one of the teams invovled fits that bill (it's also a touch myopic, in that I don't know why I should care that some writer at the paper in town doesn't want to watch the game, but that's neither here nor there).

2. BCS didn't screw Texas Christian. The only system that accommodates three undefeated national title contenders is a playoff. You can make a case for TCU instead of Auburn or Oregon, but unless TCU was unbeaten and Oregon or Auburn had two losses, I'm not seeing how they got "screwed" so much as they were third place in a race that only takes the top two. It's happened before (Auburn in 2004) and it unless someone comes up with a way to have a three-team football game, it will happen again.

 

[dooley_womack1]

Two problems with your hypothesis:

1. BCS didn't cost you readers. You took what by your own admission was a controversial stand, and people reacted accordingly. That's what you wanted, right? And certainly I'm not going to watch the game because I don't approve of the BCSin the heart of the fan base of one of the teams invovled fits that bill (it's also a touch myopic, in that I don't know why I should care that some writer at the paper in town doesn't want to watch the game, but that's neither here nor there).

2. BCS didn't screw Texas Christian. The only system that accommodates three undefeated national title contenders is a playoff. You can make a case for TCU instead of Auburn or Oregon, but unless TCU was unbeaten and Oregon or Auburn had two losses, I'm not seeing how they got "screwed" so much as they were third place in a race that only takes the top two. It's happened before (Auburn in 2004) and it unless someone comes up with a way to have a three-team football game, it will happen again.

Maybe the BCS can consult with McMahon on that

 

[BrianGriffin]

Two problems with your hypothesis:

1. BCS didn't cost you readers. You took what by your own admission was a controversial stand, and people reacted accordingly. That's what you wanted, right? And certainly I'm not going to watch the game because I don't approve of the BCSin the heart of the fan base of one of the teams invovled fits that bill (it's also a touch myopic, in that I don't know why I should care that some writer at the paper in town doesn't want to watch the game, but that's neither here nor there).

2. BCS didn't screw Texas Christian. The only system that accommodates three undefeated national title contenders is a playoff. You can make a case for TCU instead of Auburn or Oregon, but unless TCU was unbeaten and Oregon or Auburn had two losses, I'm not seeing how they got "screwed" so much as they were third place in a race that only takes the top two. It's happened before (Auburn in 2004) and it unless someone comes up with a way to have a three-team football game, it will happen again.

And to add to your points, this is what the I-A (FBS) teams have agreed to. You can't be screwed by a process that you are a willing participant in that works the way it's supposed to work.

People like to say it happened because TCU is not in a BCS automatic qualifier conference. I disagree. Let's say Virginia Tech went unbeaten through the ACC. Etiher Va. Tech or Oregon would have been left out and they are both in AQ conferences.

I don't like the BCS format, but nobody is getting screwed by it so long as they signed up for it.