The NCAA Football Bowl Season has begun and, believe it or not, it’s been some pretty exciting football.  While the matchups aren’t especially rivetting on paper and actually reading the pre-BCS schedule filled with sponsor tags is a little like watching a NASCAR race, the competition has not been filled with ho-hum blowouts.

A double-OT win for Wyoming over Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl didn’t just make Dick Cheney smile.  A smirk was also found on the face of the Executive Director of the Bowl Championship Series Bill Hancock who has been spreading lies about how a playoff would hurt college football fans, and the economies of towns who currently host non-BCS bowl games.

According to TIME Magazine, Hancock is one of the most loved men in the sports industry.  So, for those questioning the use of the word ‘lies’, it would be wise to read his unpalatable explanation predicting lost interest in the regular season, economic downfall for host cities of bowl games (assuming that host cities would have to change at all), and every other plague mentioned in Exodus short of raining amphibians, if in fact a playoff is instituted.

Furthermore, Hancock’s piece in USA Today illustrates how out of touch he is with the simple desires of the college football fan.  That is obvious quite early in this written plea, but never moreso than when he dares to state that ‘playoffs burden the fans’.  After going on and on about how great it is to create memories going on road trips to see one’s alma mater in the post-season, this becomes a ‘burden’ when it’s inconvenient for his argument.

It’s a healthy practice to examine the argument in detail.  It’s also a good excercise to pull back the curtain to see who is spending what on whom to get what done in terms of lobbyists’ efforts to influence our currently inequitable system for better or worse.

One thing is for sure:  The SFC will be following this issue closely, pushing for a playoff with our friends at Playoff PAC until that goal is realized.  Awaiting Hancock’s smile turned upside down to pure frown.