Played Out: The Corruption of College Presidents and the BCS

Good versus evil. It is a timeless theme generally reserved for fictional scripts played out in theatre. The friction needed for the war to wage is fabricated through pen, because no one would be capable of such sinister and diabolical scheme in reality?

Greed is a byproduct of evil. It is a disease, not necessarily of biology, but of ego rising to totalitarian proportion. It is roundly defined as a level of selfishness that incorporates the oblivious with the addict.

Is tradition a proud and nostalgic comfort meal that is a reminder of what is right with the world? Or is it, in some cases, an inherited degeneracy, a gene that will eventually produce an abomination?

Alternate solutions are byproducts of good when they are transparently evident. The most logical and fair structures available to solve issues should always be considered and ultimately implemented, shouldn’t they?

When considering why there isn’t a playoff system in the highest division of college football, all of these dynamics have a seat at the table, and yet some voices seem to be heard more than others. The popularity of greenbacks is undoubtedly louder to the powers that be than the resonating voice of popular demand. This reality is arguably the most tragic and unfortunate situation in American sport today.

Admission of guilt comes in the form of diversion. Deviation from real solutions to an obvious problem is the favorite play that college presidents utilize in the game of the current lightning rod of college football – bowl system versus playoff system.

The excuses are like cards in a deck. They will be played, without difference, in the same order of priority over and over. It’s just too bad for them that this old trick is what is truly played out. It isn’t fooling anyone anymore, gentlemen.

They will lead you to believe that instituting a playoff system will erode the significance of the regular season. Is this what has happened in the NFL? Oh I’m sorry, is the NFL losing customers? Or is the NFL the biggest, most-watched sporting league in the United States, by far, without it even being close?

What these staunch fat-cats don’t realize is that the vast majority of college football fans operate at a pitch that is beyond belligerently diehard. They will view with the same intensity whether their hallowed program is playing a top ranked team in the nation or a consensus doormat. The love of the college football fan is unconditional, impartial and without waiver. To paint them, or the significance of their game schedule, they wait nine months for every year with finger-tapping anticipation as fickle is an insult to the intelligence of even the averagely rabid fan.

The college presidents will also lead you to believe that the learning experience of the student-athlete would be threatened with a playoff system, seeing as finals week would happen to fall during the elimination process within a December bracket.

First of all, if the student-athlete needs an entirely extensive amount of “cram time” to score outstanding on a final and achieve a passing grade, then let’s be honest, they probably aren’t cut out to be student-athletes anyway. They probably should have thought about study before they attended all those frat parties every weekend during the semester. It is widely known that procrastination is the downfall of any multitasker.

Second of all, and probably the most ‘slap-you-in-your-face’ obvious debunk of this supposed problem: If study hours are so important the week of finals, what happens on the week of mid-terms? Aren’t mid-terms smack-dab in the middle of the conference schedule? Heck, it might even fall on homecoming week! Are they skipping out on practice that week to make the grade? College presidents making this contention might as well cancel homecoming week for the sake of the bad study habits of the football team!

And of course, the ace of spades in this spin-cycle of a game; they will lead you to believe that the tradition of the bowls will be ruined. Herein lies the foremost smokescreen. College football has progressed. These fossils haven’t. This isn’t the age of only the dominant powerhouses whose logos and fight songs are household camouflage sustaining the upper crust of the caste system anymore. Parody has emerged.

Cinderella stories of only recent years past have taken the quantum leap in becoming major players. These programs are starting to arise on an annual basis. This competitiveness yells and screams for a fair template. Without it, you have nothing more than an ongoing Notre Dame hall pass–the “they aren’t in a conference, so there is no real way to judge them, but since they are ‘Notre Dame’ we will give them the benefit of the doubt” current state of affairs.

If Notre Dame finishes in the top 8 of the BCS with their ‘vaunted schedules’ (Western Michigan, Tulsa, Wake Forest, Army, Navy, Air Force, just to name a few) they receive an automatic BCS berth, even if they have two losses! That’s right. Two losses. It happened in 2000-2001 (a 9-2 Notre Dame team lost to Oregon State in the Fiesta Bowl, 41-9), in 2005-2006 (a 9-2 Notre Dame team lost to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, 34-20) and in 2006-2007 (a 10-2 Notre Dame team lost to LSU in the Sugar Bowl, 41-14). Three strikes and you’re out.

Just this season, Michigan State finished 7th in the AP Poll with an 11-1 record and was not included in the BCS. Different rules for different people I suppose? I would imagine the President of Notre Dame has shared more splashes of scotch with BCS high-ups than the president of Boise State, TCU or even Michigan State for that matter. There is only one reason why this special deal is struck with Notre Dame. Money. They have more fans, so they will generate more money. That this exists in amateur athletics is absolutely disgusting.

All of this aside, the goal of this seemingly never-ending crusade is to reach a point where we are able to decide a champion on the field, like every single other high school, college or professional sport does. Having the annual fight for the crystal ball live within the spinning webs of computer code and the back-scratching voting practices of coaches only invites corruption.

The fundamental question becomes: would you rather give the gladiator the chance to slay the mighty lion himself, or would you rather have Caesar decide whether he gets the chance to with the whim of a thumb? We have seen how that screenplay has played out before.

The solution lies in a number of ways that differ from the current design. A basic tournament is the handyman’s way. Anywhere from a four to a sixteen-team, single elimination tournament would prove sufficient in many ways. A starting point could be to make the size of the bracket as large as the cut-off point of two-loss teams. We are a country of second chances. Third chances are few and far between–yes, even if you are ‘Irish lucky.’

An altering solution that doesn’t eliminate the current bowl structure as it stands would be the lawyer’s way. You add a clause for a post bowl season playoff, eliminating all unbeaten until one remains as the champion. If there was only one unbeaten left at the end, no need for the clause that particular year. If there were still let’s say, three remaining, you would pit the two lowest ranked against one another for the right to play the highest ranked the next and final week. In the case of this particular season it would have been easy–the winner of Auburn/Oregon will be unbeaten and TCU is still unbeaten. A week after the Auburn/Oregon game, you would have one final showdown involving the two remaining unbeatens, Auburn or Oregon versus TCU.

The bottom line remains evident to you college presidents. With some form of a playoff system you wouldn’t have to scrap your sacred bowl system that apparently is carved in stone next to the ten commandments. If you dissolve the BCS and implement a playoff system, yes, the elite programs in the top five to ten would not be a part of the bowl system. However, it would allow for a return the of the original purpose of the bowl system and preserve your traditional model, the classic matchups of conferences.

The classic Pac 10 vs. Big 10 Rose Bowl matchup could be assured, instead of having the BCS alter it, most recently in the past decade with Miami, Oklahoma, Texas and TCU. This year, for example, Stanford, USC or Washington could have matched up against Ohio State, Michigan State or Iowa – depending on how many of these teams the national championship bracket would include. These schools were all either 2nd, 3rd or 4th in their respective conferences. All of these fan-bases travel exceptionally well, therefore allowing the pageantry of the event to hold true. This model for re-instituting classic conference vs. conference matchups could revamp the entire bowl schedule without the BCS interfering.

Ultimately, I believe the paramount question is: if the current BCS system compromises the classic conference champion versus conference champion matchup, like the Rose Bowl, by almost annually having the Pac 10 or Big 10 champion in the BCS championship game–then what is the downside of having the same dynamic exist, with a playoff system for the elite, and getting to design the bowl season to satisfy your hunger for classic tradition? The answer seems almost ridiculously simple to me.

With an eight-team playoff, for example, you could cut the bottom four bowls that currently exist. I’m sure we would all really miss the GoDaddy.com Bowl, the Little Caesar’s Bowl, the BBVA Compass Bowl and the Beef O’Brady’s Bowl.

Having to at least recognize a certain amount of counterpoint, a playoff system might slightly downplay the bowl system and create a country-club culture for the elite–but let’s be honest and forthcoming college presidents, isn’t that right up your alley? This seems like a small price to pay to assure that it is ultimately played out on the field, and there are no corruptible factors when deciding a champion.

Making the encompassing culture wholesome and about something more than money should be what amateur athletics is really all about, shouldn’t it? What kind of example are you setting, college presidents, as figures to look up to for these young men and women involved in college athletics? Aren’t things like greed the antithesis of what should be gained from being a part of a higher institution?

It’s no wonder your student athletes, exposed or not, are constantly subscribing to the black-eye of amateur athletics: taking money and goods for their services in secret. They are learning from you, college presidents, that it is greed and money that is important and not what it is all about and always has been at its core–being part of something greater than yourself.

We all should be confident that there will come a day when the greed will be curbed and ‘tradition’ will be moved slightly aside for the sake of logic and equality. We all know how the screenplay unfolds. The obvious solution can not longer be denied. Dissent leads to revolt. Revolt leads to change. There will come that day. The king dies and the populous prevails, just like every other good versus evil plot is played out.

-Andrew Stevens