by Chana Elgin
With the New Year underway, fans of teams without a dog in the BCS fight from across the nation have the promise of a fresh year ahead to scramble and stake a claim in next year’s college football post-season.
It seems like a tale as old as time when fans of schools deemed mediocre at best by the BCS moan and wail about having to deal with the unfair bowl system. In reality, the system works out for about six schools and crams a lot of teams into the crowded, short end of the stick. However, the pouty fans of teams failing the BCS’ tests are onto something.
The whole Bowl Championship Series system is confusing to say the least. So let me offer some kind of an explanation. Like politics, war and everything in between, the BCS is absolutely fueled by the cold, dirty burn of money. $170 million in prize money divided up to the 10 teams selected for the five BCS Bowls is of no joking matter.
Divvying the $170 million per the top 10 bowl contenders yields each a handsome $17 million- a significant figure in any athletic director’s budget; but how does this figure compare to a playoff’s monetary projections?
I bet Valentine’s Day was set in February for a very serious reason; a loved ones’ last shot, if you will, to spoil their significant others before their transcendence and utter disappearance into the college basketball’s supreme playoff that is March Madness. Not a traditional playoff forum within the typical definition, but a forum nonetheless that requires teams to physically fight for victory without the aid and support of what I am sure UConn is considering, at this point, their MVP- the computer.
People lose themselves in this madness of a basketball playoff. Their physical sense of being and often, more times than not, their wallets and the contents within go, too. BCS Bowl games are approximately an extra week in college football; The excitement of March Madness spans the entire month. This includes similar components to that of Bowl Season: ridiculously priced tickets, costly and effective advertisements to the thousands of fans watching from home and “prize money” all the same.
Plainly, the BCS execs are fighting for job security. Their dedication to the theory of sports uniting nations in times of economic downturn and hanging on to the unraveling thread that is the college bowl game is bunk. If recent events have taught us anything, it is that the fat cats still get their milk in the end. The failing auto-industry execs still got their bi-quarterly meeting in St. Croix and no one at the top of AIG is starving.
It is no different for those who champion this antiquated and inequitable system. Bureaucracy still has its fierce grip on the bowl system. 2012 is not too far down the road, and SFC seeks to change that pushing for a playoff in college football this year. Here’s hoping for a Better Championship Series next year.
Chana Elgin is a junior broadcast journalism major at Texas Tech University. She is currently serving a Sportswriter Fellowship on behalf of the SFC. Hailing from Houston, Chana is a fan of all teams that are not Dallas.
