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The Spectacle Blog
Auburn’s ugly win over Oregon, with undefeated TCU looking on, strengthens the case for replacing or at least reforming the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) system for determing college football’s national champion. And there is no question that many big-time schools exploit athletes and fail to give them any sort of education. But Gregg Easterbrook’s argument that academic achievement should factor into BCS selection, along with the New America Foundation’s “Academic Bowl Championship Series,” is silly. Why not also have debate teams ranked by physical fitness? Or maybe we could have have jazz bands face off on the gridiron before handing out awards for music.
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More Blog Posts by Joseph Lawler
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Ryan| 1.12.11 @ 11:08AM
Re-work the BCS to a +1 system, and push schools like TCU to play REAL schedules. Auburn earned their spot. Oregon more or less did.
TCU didn't. Sorry. Go play 5 ranked teams in a season and we'll talk. Change your schedule. Join a real conference. Go play someone other than the SEC's homecoming opponents.
There are two things that we need to think before going to an all-playoff schedule:
1. The current system makes the regular season mean something. A tournament isn't necessarily about who is best, it's about who is hot. As fun as the NCAA basketball tourney is, it's main problem is that the best team doesn't always win. In football, EVERY game is important. That consistency needs to stay.
2. The BCS is WAY better than the old bowl system, where the best teams rarely met up.
And yeah, Easterbrook can be a bit of a prude. His academic points are a bit off, but he's made several good arguments lately:
1. Helmet changes need to be made to prevent concussions.
2. Football programs don't make money and drain resources from general college funds.
Wayne | 1.12.11 @ 12:31PM
Ryan, somehow I think this system would exclude all Big Ten schools.
Hank Archer| 1.12.11 @ 1:22PM
The Big Ten is 12-13 vs. the SEC in bowl games over the last nine years. Almost all of those games were played in the SEC region and I think seven of the games were played in the SEC team’s home state. So you could consider almost all of these “home” games for the SEC and yet the Big Ten is still at about .500
Bob K.| 1.12.11 @ 2:00PM
The south make tons of money off these games from the snow birds. Probably enough to spend on educating their athletes if they wanted to do so.
All the northern and western conferences should stay up north and hold their bowl games in domed stadiums in big citys!
Occam's Tool| 1.12.11 @ 1:58PM
TCU has lost only 1 game in the last 2 years, and won the Rose Bowl against Wisconsin, arguably the best of the Final Four. Give me a break. University of Minnesota and Northwestern aren't that tough. They also played several teams ranked during the season.
TCU is transferring to the Big East.
Clint| 1.12.11 @ 11:15AM
Why doesn't Pro football have independent business minor leagues with Player Development Contracts like Pro baseball.
Ryan| 1.12.11 @ 11:31AM
They had something similar with the World League until it folded a few years ago. Right now the UFL is trying to serve a similar purpose. It helped Dominic Rhodes this year keep his game up.
Richard Baker| 1.12.11 @ 11:28AM
Academic achievement? Regarding "student-athletes" in big-time college football/basketball, that is a decided contradiction in terms. As an example, for all the fawning over the late Jim Valvano at NC State about his basketball program, most of his "student-athletes" never graduated. And no, I'm not a Duke or North Carolina fan/alum.
Phin Barnum| 1.12.11 @ 12:44PM
It's way past time to face the music here and admit there is no such thing as "student athlete". The market has turned universities into the minors for football and basketball. The NCAA should REQUIRE schools to pay all athletes a minimum wage in currency of tuition, books room and board. This payment would be taxed and students would have the same rights as other university employees. The students would have to then pay the tuition, room and board out of their own account. The former athletic scholarships would be awarded to actual academic students based on merit and need. Keep the current bowl system the way it is because it raises the most money for the schools to pay for their professional athletes until a more profitable way is found.
Derek Leaberry| 1.12.11 @ 1:41PM
If American universities had any integrity, they would take back "college" athletics from the alumni and the television networks that run "college" athletics. How to reform? First, student-athletes would have to earn SAT scores that would normally get them into college. No longer should "student athletes" win a scholarship with an substandard SAT. College football teams should be filled with scholars and not thugs. Second, college presidents, and not the dual headed monster of athletic directors and alumni, would hire and fire the coaches. Third, the television networks should be informed that colleges will dictate the terms of television coverage and not the networks, money be damned.
As it stands, "college" football is a commercial enterprise having little to do with what a university is for. Corruption pervades. Most of the players seem to better fitted to riding at the back of trash trucks rather than sitting at school desks. The coaches are overpaid little gods. The alumni throw their weight around in their vicarious pursuits of glory. And the spineless college presidents sit back passively as the corrupt college football system continues along its path ugly as a street-walking whore.
The BCS is a symptom of the problem but not the root cause.
Roger McKinney| 1.12.11 @ 1:54PM
Check out this story:
"The NCAA is really just a giant subsidy distribution scheme. Most of the Association’s revenue comes from the broadcasting rights for the Division I men’s basketball tournament. This money is funneled to NCAA members — even Division II and III schools — who in turn use it to subsidize athletic programs that can’t generate their own revenues. This is why “amateurism” — denying most forms of compensation to Division I athletes — is so critical to the NCAA’s identity. “Paying the players” means reducing these subsidies. And subsidies are the very reason for the NCAA’s existence.
"This also explains why the NCAA does not conduct a football playoff for Division I-A schools. The bowl system actually predates the modern, three-division organization of the NCAA. Over the years this system has created its own set of rent-seekers — the bowls themselves, which are basically local nonprofit organizations — and its provided a steady stream of revenues for the BCS schools that doesn’t have to be laundered through the NCAA. The basketball money has to be shared with the entire NCAA world. The bowl money is more tightly controlled. And when you’re a government-run university looking to subsidize as many sports as possible in your own institution, you want to try and keep potential competitors at bay."
http://blog.mises.org/15293/the-college-football-conundrum/
Bo| 1.12.11 @ 2:54PM
I think they should go back to the traditional bowl matchups between the old conference champs on Jan 1 and then run their BCS computer stuff and have another game the next weekend. Then we can balance tradition and the ESPN fueled desire to know "who's best right now" at the end of the season.