The
View From the Couch - Bowled Over
Have
you seen the list? Reading your TV guide this week will
prove a little more challenging, planning wise, because
there are quite a few college football games available for
your personal viewing.
Here’s
a wee sampling: The Alamo Bowl, The Capitol One Bowl, The
Champs Sports Bowl, The Meineke Car Care Bowl, The Cotton
Bowl, The Emerald Bowl, The Fort Worth Bowl, The Gator Bowl,
The GMAC Bowl, The Hawaii Bowl, The Holiday Bowl, The Houston
Bowl, The Independence Bowl, The Insight Bowl, The Las Vegas
Bowl, The Liberty Bowl, The Motor City Bowl, The MPC Computers
Bowl, The Music City Bowl, The Outback Bowl, The Peach Bowl,
The Poinsettia Bowl, The Sun Bowl, The Fiesta Bowl, The
Orange Bowl, The Sugar Bowl and The Rose Bowl.
Interestingly
enough, or rather, tragically enough, the only one of these
Titanic titles that really counts for something is the very
last one.
All
the others? Not so much. Unless you consider the making
of mounds of money as a valid reason to stage a game.
Welcome
to the Bowl Championship Series – the only system
in sports that rarely determines anything, yet still holds
reign over Division I football.
This
year, the BCS managed to get it right when Southern California
and Texas vie in what will actually be a title game. All
other games on that lengthy list are essentially meaningless.
Except to their respective athletic programs, whose pockets
they line. It’s clear the fans don’t like it.
Sports writers are apoplectic over the B-skip the C-S. The
players themselves all want to a chance to play for the
whole enchilada. As for the students, how many of them are
going to use their school winning the MPC Computers Bowl
as a bragging right?
Well,
maybe a few of the nerdier ones would.
NCAA
president Myles Brand is a great defender of the BCS. He
has to be because that’s the system all his constituents
like. His constituents by the way ain’t you and I.
Nor are they the students for that matter. Instead, he bows
to the almighty college presidents, whose athletic budgets
are built around bowl games. Perish the thought of teams
participating in a limited post-season that matters. Nope
– in college it’s all for one and one for all,
as fifty-six - yes that’s fifty plus a six - schools
qualify for the Bowl of Cash season. Interestingly enough,
the NCAA does know how to hold a playoff in football. The
do it every year. Twice in fact.
Division
III held its national championship game between UW-Whitewater
and Mount Union last Saturday. The night before Appalachian
State played Northern Iowa to settle the Division I-AA title.
However,
in Division I – what should be the tops in competition
as it is in talent – they leave it up to a system
that is only good at one thing – sucking the legitimacy
out of college football.
A
true playoff system in Division I to determine an actual
national champion every year is what every fan wants. Colleges
don’t because such a limited playdown would come at
a price. Lots of teams wouldn’t make it to a post
season. .500 teams would stay home, (rightfully so), and
therefore some of those obscure bowls in obscure cities
would go bye-bye.
The
bottom line is, that would affect the bottom line. Sponsor
and ticket dollars those schools depend on, in fact budget
on, would be gone as well.
The
one thing college presidents hate more than having their
credibility questioned on why they make so much money for
their schools on the backs of unpaid laborers is having
their year-end come in in the red.
For
colleges the BCS isn’t about competition. It’s
not about determining who the best is even. All football
is to the colleges is a method to guarantee the maximum
return on a massive investment.
There
is no defense for this. And thankfully, few college presidents
and coaches insult our intelligence by even trying. They
just shrug their shoulders and tell us it’s the best
system for them.
But
what about us? Well, we do get a ton of football over the
next few weeks, and that is never a bad thing.
Yet,
just imagine how great it would be if most of it actually
mattered.Enough with the whining. Hey, don’t ya know
it’s time to start gearing up for that MPC Computers
Bowl!
I’m
sure you’ve been waiting for this one all year…
Cheers!
Gavin McDougald
– AKA Couch
