BOWL-ed Over



The best solution for determining #1 vs #2 



It has become a tradition.  Every December we decorate for the holidays, eat way too much, buy presents and complain about the BCS.  Count me as one who will abstain from the last one on that list.  Since its inception the goal of the BCS has been to get the top two teams together in the National Championship Game.  For the  11th time in 12 tries it has succeeded.  The other BCS games are just showcases.  The six member conferences have a partnership with the major bowls. The jobs of the other BCS bowl games isn't to be fair or impartial.  It is to fullfill their agreement with their business partners.  The individual bowl games pick the teams they want in their particular game.  People hate the BCS for several reasons and one is the utopian thought of a tournament.  Individuals clamour for a playoff although they can't agree how to get one done. 



The top factor in determining a champion!

4 teams?  8 teams? 16 teams?  Where are you playing games? Regional sites?  Home sites?  Does TCU host a game with 40,000 seats in their stadium?  Are we always going to play games at bigger venues to make more money?  How long before the small schools throw a fit because they never get to host?  Are we still using the BCS to determine at large teams?  Will we use every conference champion?  Do we expect fan bases to travel for four straight weeks to watch games? What about the Bowls?  Scrap them!  How do you make up the $1 billion in revenue?  You need a plan to make up all that lost money..... and no it just isn't going to happen.  And before you start saying that a playoff is the only "fair" way to determine a champion then don't we need to make the playing field "fair" as well?  How is it "fair" that Texas has a recruiting budget of $5 million and San Jose State's in only $300,000.  Do we need to have revenue sharing?  How far do we take this whole "fair" thing?  I have been saying for years if you want this system to suffer a catastrophic scenario root for Alabama, Notre Dame, and Texas to all go unbeaten.   Then you will get your playoff.  You want change? You need someone with deep pockets and a ton of power to be effected.  TCU, Boise, and UTAH don't wield either of these things. 





Complain to Complain Crowd



The other gripe you will hear is that "there are way too many bowl games this year".  My response to that...So What! What would you rather have fill the sports vacuum on a Tuesday night the last week of December?  MEAC Conference Basketball?  How about regular season NBA games featuring the Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors.  Are you pining for more weekday NHL showdowns between the Ottawa Senators and Phoenix Coyotes?  The people who get worked up about "too many bowl games" are the same people who get mad when they can't find a parking spot, at the mall, the Saturday afternoon before Christmas.  GET OVER IT. 


There will be a few fanbases that will be up in arms about what bowl game they will be playing in. (See Michigan State and Boise St.) Look this is a sport where style points matter.  If you only beat one ranked team all year, and that applies to you both, then you had better run the table.  Boise's big win is Va. Tech and Sparty took down Wisconsin.  Other than that who'd you beat?  Boise's plays a WAC schedule and their opponents combined record was 75-76.   MSU opponent's combined record 76-72 and that includes a game against Portland State, an FCS School.  If your schedule consists of weak squads then you had better dominate teams down the stretch (see Wisconsin) or you won't get the benefit of the doubt and I am fine with that. 

"Capital"ism at its finest!

I also enjoy complaints about the sponsorships of games.   Why did they change the name from the Citrus Bowl to the Capital One Bowl? Why is it the Chick Fil A Bowl now instead of the Peach Bowl? Look, if I am the President of Capital One or Chick Fil A and I am overseeing the forking over of tens of millions of dollars to a bowl game you had better believe that I would want my company's name all over it.   Listen the schools benefit from this.  The more money in the game the higher the payout.  This helps YOU! The more money a school brings in the less likely they are to raise ticket prices that next season.  Would you rather have universities make money from YOU or from a business.  That's what I thought.  GET OVER IT.


And my favorite gripe is that of the 'long" layoff from now until the games.  When should they play the BCS games?  Two weeks?  Christmas Day?  If you are going to play 35 bowl games and do it over the Holiday Season you need time to plan these out.  How do you expect to mobilize all these fan bases during the most hectic time of year for not only travel, but work and business as well.  Let's look at the economics of this.  It comes back to money.  Games that are on TV in prime time get more money.  The more spread out the games, the more they are showcased.  The more showcased games, the more eyeballs on that single game.  Therefore your advertising rates can be higher.  More people watch and the schools get more exposure.  But poor YOU.  YOU had to wait two more weeks than you wanted to.  Please do me a favor this Holiday/Bowl Season.  Enjoy the games and keep the complaining to a minimum.  I, for one, am tired of your cliched arguments and I don't know what you are yelling about?

Neither do I, Brick.  Neither do I.