June 11, 2009

Bob Kustra, President, Boise State University vs. the BCS

COMMENTARY ON BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES by Bob Kustra says it all.

Here are a few of the highlights:

There is considerable irony in the fact that in the highest temple of political correctness, American higher education, the BCS worships the false idols of monopoly, inequity and greed at the expense of the virtues of fairness, access and competition.

The BCS is a fundamentally flawed system that is unfair in its access, governance and revenue distribution.

There is no question that parity among college football teams is greater than ever before in its modern history.

So you would think that when Boise State opens its football season against the University of Oregon on September 3, the dream of a national championship would beat in the heart of every player, coach, alumnus and fan. Instead, there will only be a faint pulse thanks to the constraints placed upon us by the BCS. An estimated 6,000 student-athletes play for football teams that have no realistic chance of competing in a BCS bowl, given the hurdles placed in the path of the non-BCS conferences and teams.

This so-called championship has fallen into the hands of the commissioners of the six BCS automatic qualifying conferences. They wrote the exclusionary BCS rule that created six automatic qualifying conferences -- Atlantic Coast, Southeastern, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, and Pac-10 -- and gives to the six conference commissioners the authority to send their respective champions to a BCS bowl regardless of how their won/loss records stack up against the champions of the non-automatic qualifying conferences -- Conference USA, Mid-American, Western Athletic, Sun Belt, and Mountain West.

In 2008, the University of Utah made the most convincing case for BCS reform when the Mountain West Conference school completed a 12-0 regular season, but was not given the opportunity to compete for the national championship. Utah was eliminated by a system -- not a team -- and further proved its championship status in a convincing BCS bowl victory over Alabama.

George Orwell, aiming at the hypocrisy of those who claim equality for all, but reserve power for a small elite, is famous for his Animal Farm quote, "All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

If there is a bottom line to the current BCS position, it is the monopolistic control the BCS has over the millions of dollars earmarked for the chosen few.

The time has come for the Football Bowl Subdivision to go the way of the other three divisions of NCAA football, basketball and its other sports and base its national championship on actual play rather than opinion polls and computers. A playoff system that is organized by the NCAA and fairly addresses access, governance and revenue distribution is the next step. Even the President of the United States has publicly endorsed a playoff system. Only then will there be alignment between the values of fairness and access so often invoked in higher education and the policies and practices of the BCS and the NCAA.

Well said indeed!

Here is to the next Tulane!

Comments:

Bob Kustra, President, Boise State University vs. the BCS
COMMENTARY ON BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES by Bob Kustra says it all. Here are a few of the highlights:
There is considerable irony in the fact that in the highest temple of political correctness, American higher education, the BCS worships the false idols of monopoly, inequity and greed at the expense of the virtues of fairness, access and competition.
...
The BCS is a fundamentally flawed system that is unfair in its access, governance and revenue distribution.
...
There is no question that parity among college football teams is greater than ever before in its modern history.
...
So you would think that when Boise State opens its football season against the University of Oregon on September 3, the dream of a national championship would beat in the heart of every player, coach, alumnus and fan. Instead, there will only be a faint pulse thanks to the constraints placed upon us by the BCS. An estimated 6,000 student-athletes play for football teams that have no realistic chance of competing in a BCS bowl, given the hurdles placed in the path of the non-BCS conferences and teams.
...
This so-called championship has fallen into the hands of the commissioners of the six BCS automatic qualifying conferences. They wrote the exclusionary BCS rule that created six automatic qualifying conferences -- Atlantic Coast, Southeastern, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, and Pac-10 -- and gives to the six conference commissioners the authority to send their respective champions to a BCS bowl regardless of how their won/loss records stack up against the champions of the non-automatic qualifying conferences -- Conference USA, Mid-American, Western Athletic, Sun Belt, and Mountain West.
...
In 2008, the University of Utah made the most convincing case for BCS reform when the Mountain West Conference school completed a 12-0 regular season, but was not given the opportunity to compete for the national championship. Utah was eliminated by a system -- not a team -- and further proved its championship status in a convincing BCS bowl victory over Alabama.
...
George Orwell, aiming at the hypocrisy of those who claim equality for all, but reserve power for a small elite, is famous for his Animal Farm quote, "All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
...
If there is a bottom line to the current BCS position, it is the monopolistic control the BCS has over the millions of dollars earmarked for the chosen few.
...
The time has come for the Football Bowl Subdivision to go the way of the other three divisions of NCAA football, basketball and its other sports and base its national championship on actual play rather than opinion polls and computers. A playoff system that is organized by the NCAA and fairly addresses access, governance and revenue distribution is the next step. Even the President of the United States has publicly endorsed a playoff system. Only then will there be alignment between the values of fairness and access so often invoked in higher education and the policies and practices of the BCS and the NCAA.
Well said indeed! Here is to the next Tulane!