BCS: Success or Mess?

Just about everyone has weighed in this season on the Bowl Championship Series or BCS for short. Most notable is our next President who wants an 8 game playoff system.

The Chairman of the BCS committee respectfully disagrees. Guess who wins that one? The BCS Committee says a play-off wouldn’t be in the best interests of the “student-athletes.” Heck, it might be the best chance their professors actually get to see them.

Here at Video Professor we run the gamut of school favorites. Big 12, SEC, Big 10, PAC 10, ACC, the MAC and the WAC and the list goes on. We have a lot of proud alumni of some great schools working here.

The BCS is a strange brew of polls, both human and computer that no one seems to quite understand, although everybody has an opinion. The best win-loss record doesn’t necessarily mean a trip to the NCAA National Championship. Other factors include some conferences like the Big 12 and SEC have conference championship games while others like the Big 10 and Pac 10 do not, plus strength of schedule, blah blah blah.

But the powers that be refuse to consider (at least publicly) a play-off, even though there is one in college basketball which is a 65 team tourney. Guess what? When you add up all the bowl games played this year and early next year, 64 Division 1 football teams will play.

So we end up with 4 BCS games, and one National Championship Game. In most cases, someone is unhappy.

Ultimately this won’t come down to what’s right, but what makes the most money. ESPN just closed a deal to carry BCS games starting in 2010. While they plan to carry the Rose Bowl on ABC, you’ll have to have cable or satellite to watch the others. Another option is the games will be available on your computer or mobile device.

In the meantime, it’s great fodder for sports talk shows and interviews with the likes of Pete Carroll. He suggests removing the “C.”

I won’t have to wait to hear who makes what BCS games. I’ll just check the vacation request forms and do the math myself.

-John
John W. Scherer
John is CEO and founder of Video Professor, Inc.
Reach him at ceo@videoprofessor.com