Sports Fans Coalition board member Dave Zirin wrote a piece published in the LA Times yesterday delivering a scathing review of the BCS.

It’s entertaining, sickening, and informative.

Click on the link in the NEWS section titled ‘Congress Should Bench the BCS’.

Especially for those still questioning whether Congress should get involved, it’s worth the read.

THE FOLLOWING PRESS RELEASE IS SFC APPROVED:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, today sent a letter to both FOX and Time Warner urging for a swift resolution to current negotiations in order to stop consumers, and football fans, from waking up without College Bowl games on New Year’s Day.

“Fox and Time Warner need to strike a deal – millions of football fans are depending on it,” said Sen. Kerry.  “Having screens go dark because two parties couldn’t come together in time is no solution.  New Year’s Day and football are synonymous in households across the nation.  Private industry negotiations cannot disrupt a fundamental American tradition.”

The full text of the letter is below:

Mr. Chase Carey

President and Chief Operating Officer

News Corporation

1211 Avenue of Americas

New York, New York 10036

Mr. Glenn Britt

Chairman and CEO

Time Warner Cable

60 Columbus Circle

NY, NY 10023

Dear Sirs:

I am aware that FOX and Time Warner Cable have been involved for some time in negotiations regarding the terms of carriage for FOX-owned broadcast television stations, as well as FOX-owned cable channels.

These are private negotiations, and I hope that the parties reach a mutually acceptable resolution before the existing agreement expires on December 31.  If you fail to do so, I suggest that FOX allow Time Warner Cable to continue transmitting programming through the College Bowl season either under current terms and conditions or under terms and conditions that will be retroactively applied once an agreement is reached, or under some third option.  I also suggest that both parties strongly consider entering arbitration rather than having consumers lose access to programming.

If I understand correctly, at midnight on December 31, 2009, FOX content may be removed from cable systems Time Warner Cable owns.  This means that, in January, millions of Time Warner Cable customers around the country could lose access to the Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and Orange Bowl, as well as NFL playoff games.  Prior to the digital transition, many consumers were able to put up rabbit ear antennas to receive programming. However, digital receivers are more expensive and complex to use.  We do not want consumers waking up on the first day of the New Year wanting to watch football and instead finding that they have to take a trip to the electronics store to purchase a digital receiver in the hope that they receive a clear over the air signal.

As the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communication, Technology, and the Internet, I have sought to place the interests of consumers at the center of our work.  If both parties conclude that the best alternative to a negotiated agreement is to have screens go dark for consumers, then they will have neglected the core interests of the millions of households that subscribe to Time Warner Cable in affected markets.  As leaders of major companies that are FCC licensees and are obligated to serve the public interest, I hope and expect that you will resolve this matter consistent with those obligations.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

God Bless you, John Kerry, for working on this issue so near and dear to the SFC faithful’s hearts during this holiday season.  We need more politicians to speak up and speak out, advocating for the sports fan.

We emplore you to follow up Senator Kerry’s letter with your own using the addresses above.  Let’s put the pressure on the networks to give us our games.  Let’s start the new year off with a victory!

Yesterday, the proposed markup of the College Football Playoff Act of 2009 sponsored by Rep. Joe Barton’s (R-Texas)  was approved in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The measure, which SFC reported on and approved on Monday, “would ban promoting, marketing or advertising a ‘national championship game’ unless the game is part of a single-elimination playoff tournament like the National Football League playoffs, lest college football’s governing body be held in violation of Federal Trade Commission truth-in-advertising provisions.”

The bill appeared to anger BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock who has repeatedly claimed that congress has ‘more important things to do’.  Sounds like a Karl Rovian or Fleischeresque, if you will, tactic focusing on the WMD’s.  That is, Weapons of Mass Distraction.  Fortunately, the subcommittee chairman and co-sponsor of the bill, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Illinois) slapped Hancock down with a classic line, “We can walk and chew gum at the same time,” that could have just as easily been uttered by Clint Eastwood in the final scene of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

For any still on the fence about the legitimacy of ‘congressional meddling’ in this instance, please read John Feinstein’s rant in Monday’s Washington Post.  It’s a scathing review of a system that’s more dysfunctional than your typical family gettogether around the holidays.

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.

It seems odd that the BCS has hired the original Final Four director, Bill Hancock, to maintain the false front that this system works in college football, and that it really is in the best interest of fans.  How will Hancock go from administering one of the most successful and profitable playoff tournaments in sports to the unjust BCS format?  With the amount of public outcry, his job won’t be easy, but it shouldn’t be.

No playoff means no trust from fans that the governing body genuinely has their interests at heart.  The fact of the matter is, no matter what Hancock says, those cashing BCS checks in the ‘approved’ conferences don’t care about their fans’ wishes one iota.  Nor do those Universities and Conferences care about those on the outside looking in.

This type of exclusion is maintained by a group of well-paid University Presidents and NCAA Officials or, as Washington Post columnist and ESPN co-host of Pardon the Interuption Michael Wilbon described it at the 4th Annual Shirley Povich Symposium last week, this “cartel” we mistake for a legitimate organization locks out whichever teams and conferences it chooses.

The organized crime continues through 2013 with the signed TV contracts, and the current rules state that ‘the champions of the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10, and Southeastern Conferences will have automatic berths’.  Any school outside of these major conferences needs to jump through hoops just for the chance to be considered, and even then, you’re a computer glitch away from rejection.

For the sports fan, the problem with caring about your alma mater’s football team so much is that no matter how well the players compete on the field, they still might be left out of contention for the BCS National Championship.  When teams like TCU, Boise State, and Cincinnati knock on the door of a perfect regular season, but know from the outset that no mathematical outcome could grant them admittance to the big dance, the inequity is glaring and egregious.

How do you think Tom Brady and the 2007/08 Patriots  would respond after being told they can only play one post-season game, win or lose, following their perfect 16-0 regular season?  If  Bill Belichek’s perfect Pats were competing in the NCAA, they’d never meet the New York Giants in a proper finale, and ‘the catch’ would never have been.

The bottom line is titles should be determined on the field of play.  Not in the offices of NCAA Conference Commisioners, University Presidents, or in the plush new confines inhabited by the first Executive Director of the BCS.

Don’t just sit there and wait for change.  JOIN THE COALITION today, and get all your family and friends to do the same.  There is strength in numbers.