Think watching your home town NFL team is your right as a tax payer (considering you helped pay for the stadium)?

Think again Jacksonville Jaguar fans.

Thus far, every home game  in 2009 has been blacked out.  To add insult to injury, this is a team in the playoff hunt, holding down a wild card spot after 13 weeks of play.

Let’s add this up: publicly funded stadium, a winning team, third lowest ticket prices in the league, but still not enough tickets have been sold to satisfy Roger Goodell’s minimum requirements for local television coverage.

No matter where the ticket prices rank league wide, the NFL shouldn’t uphold this policy in these economic times.  Abel Harding, a business columnist at the Florida Times Union, told Conan Neal on Talk of the Nation, “that’s been a big deal, and that’s where it goes back to a lot of people saying maybe the NFL is being a bit greedy here, enforcing the blackout rule in the middle of an economic downturn…they’re making plenty of money. Maybe if they had some consideration, they might waive it for a year or so but they have not done that.”

The Sports Fans Coalition  is committed to supporting legislation that will enable fans to watch their home team’s games.

A letter from an SFC member:

I’m a student at the University of Pennsylvania, a lifelong Philadelphia
area resident, and a die hard Phillies fan. In Philadelphia, Comcast is the
biggest company around, and their station, Comcast Sportsnet, carries most
Phillies games on TV.

This wasn’t a problem when I lived at home since we had Comcast. However, since moving to Penn’s campus, neither the school cable provider nor the cable provider I’ve used since I’ve live off campus has CSN (I don’t get Comcast because it is far too expensive for my college student budget).

This is because Comcast refuses to allow most other cable providers to carry the network, basically holding Phillies, Sixers, and Flyers fans hostage (Comcast owns large chunks of the Sixers and Flyers, so guess what channel has the rights to their games).

My sophomore year, I lived on the 14th story of a building. My windows faced south, and I could see the entire sports complex from my bedroom. I saw the fireworks go off before the game, the Citizen’s Bank Park Bell ring after a Phillies homer, and could hear the crowd when the window was open.

But could I watch the game from my room? Not on television.

Thanks for fighting the good fight Sports Fan Coalition!

Yesterday’s conference championship games resulted in Alabama and Texas winning exciting games over tough opponents, but one can’t help but wonder along with the rest of the sports media what an NCAA football Selection Sunday would be like. Instead, we have this countdown to dissatisfaction that is billed as MUST SEE TV by every network that takes a slice of the BCS pie.

A full thirty-two days away from the BCS National Championship game, there are five undefeated teams that have a more than valid argument to play for the title. The #2 Crimson Tide rolled over the #1 Gators in the SEC Championship. The #3 Longhorns squeaked by #22 Cornhuskers in the final seconds to win the Big 12.

Texas and Alabama played their guts out all season long, and they both deserve the chance to compete for the championship. Tonight at 8pm, it will be ceremonially confirmed that the two teams will be meeting in Pasadena. However, the current BCS system that leaves undefeated Cincinnati, Boise State, and TCU without that same opportunity is not a fair reward for their impressive regular season accomplishments.

It is time for the BCS to admit that their championship should not be called the ‘national championship.’ We have no way of knowing who the national champion is without a playoff. When you watch the NFL, no one misses thinking about such contributing factors as preseason rankings, strength of schedule, program reputation, television ratings, and the all important computer rankings. (Interestingly, in today’s updated Sagarin ratings, a part of the computer formula that contributes to the final BCS rankings, Florida remains the second place team.)

Here is hoping that every NCAA Division I conference will realize that the BCS is far from the best possible system for fair competition. A playoff works in every other level of football in this country. Let’s acknowledge the inequities of a method that has proven faulty.

It’s business as usual for the NCAA, ESPN, and all those in power not listening to dissatisfied teams nor their fans. This is the cash cow of the Conference and University Presidents, and they have no incentive to change the system unless we say and do something about it.

This is the BCS. Remove the ‘C’ from the acronym, and you have a much more accurate description of a system that is perpetuated by those who benefit financially from it at the expense of those who remain dissatisfied, the sports fans.

While the SFC has accurately explained why securing a playoff for college football is the only way to restore the integrity of the NCAA, it has not been fully demonstrated how much fun all this would be for fans when all is said and done. Whether it’s a plus-1 scenario or a full-blown 64 team bracket replicating the Final Four in college hoops (suggested by Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach), we’re in for an exciting and, more importantly, satisfying winter ritual to determine who really is the best in the country.

By years end, there will be a handful of undefeated teams left, and despite the fact that one’s alma mater might win the Citi BCS National Championship Game, there will still be some remorse in the fact that it’s not a bona fide national championship. All doubt was not removed. The results are in and they leave us wanting more.

Some would argue that this is a good thing. In this case, ‘some’ refers to Ari Fleischer and the BCS. They are using dissatisfaction to market their sport. The debate, in their opinion, is more exciting than actually watching a great game between two teams who deserve to be on the field based on their performance in a previously held playoff contest in order to crown a true champ.

If you take a look at the lineup of BCS Bowls this year, you are seeing the matchups of conferences before the results are even in. What does that tell you? It is proof positive that the current system of predetermination is unfair and underwhelming.

The fact is that these BCS Bowl positions are promised to certain conferences long before the first kickoff of the season. We are left with a week of weak programming; a slew of lopsided victories just so contractual obligations are satisfied while the fans are left unsatisfied.

We won’t see the underdog triumph. The system is built in a way to reward affiliation and association over actual wins and losses on the field. The BCS benefits those teams in big conferences, and even the most respected coaches in those ‘elite’ conferences like Joe Paterno want this ‘bogus‘ system changed. Even though Texas is the heir apparent to this year’s BCS National Championship, their head coach Mack Brown has stated that there should not be a distinction between BCS and non-BCS schools and that all schools should be treated equally.

The penultimate example of how anticlimactic Division IA football has become at the hands of those administering the BCS is found this Saturday when the number 1 ranked Florida Gators face the number 2 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide for the SEC Championship in Atlanta, Georgia. Now, why would a game pitting number 1 vs. number 2 be disappointing? It’s because there will be no chance for either team to avenge the loss.

Think of all the possibilities. Sports Illustrated has already done so creating a mock 16-team playoff that would serve as a fitting format for a 4 week thrill ride filled with matchups based on merit and quality of play rather than the conference your University President bought its way into analogous to being a member of a country club.

Instead, the SEC Championship this Saturday represents what could have been. While it’s near impossible to find a ‘supporter of the BCS that isn’t paid by the BCS’ according to James Carville, we are surrounded by the pro-playoff contingent who won’t be satisfied until we see a National Championship decided on the field.

Until then, we just won’t be satisfied.