The BCS isn’t that bad

By Bart Doan  |   Friday, November 21, 2008  |  Comments( 3 )

College Football
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To most college football fans, including Barack Obama, the title of this article is blasphemy. It is the equivalent of bringing White Castle to a fine steakhouse. It is bringing your 1998 Geo Metro to a classic car show. It is a title that is not supposed to exist. The truth of the matter is ugly, though. You see, the BCS works, and not just for the reasons its own self-absorbed Web site says.

Even if they're not willing to admit it, people love the BCS. When it was adopted in 1998, college football turned in a record attendance of 27.5 million just for what are now called FBS games. With all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the hatred of the BCS, one could only assume those numbers dropped since, correct? Not exactly. In 2007, that record number of 27.5 million rose to 37.1 million. That is an alarming 10 million more fans, an average of 1 million more game-goers per season. From 2006 to 2007 alone, there was an increase of nearly 400,000 fans. So, the idea that college football has gotten less popular as the formula for choosing its champions has gotten even more complicated is not the case.

Now, because the NCAA is considered a non-profit organization, it is impossible to track down exactly how much revenue it pulls in from college football alone to compare. So, in analyzing why the BCS works, other avenues -- i.e., ticket sales and television contracts -- must be created. As for the BCS itself, consider that the inaugural contract for the three bowls other than the Rose that encompass the entity which is the BCS were priced at $25 million per year for all three. ABC initially footed the bill for that. In 2006, Fox began splitting the coverage with ABC, which maintained desire to hold on to the Rose Bowl like grim death. The price for the BCS bowl games since? Fox now pays $20 million per bowl and ABC has a contract with the Rose Bowl for $300 million over eight years. Considering that the networks started out paying $25 million for all four and are now up to nearly $40 million per year for one of them, the NCAA seems to have aptly figured out how to increase profits. Earlier this week, in fact, the NCAA turned down Fox’s final proposal of $82 million per year to continue televising the Orange, Fiesta and Sugar bowls. The NCAA is reportedly seeking something more in the range of $132 million.

What all of these figures show is more than just dollars and cents -- they show dollars and sense. For all the clamoring about how unfair the BCS is, people keep showing up in record-breaking numbers. For all the fake brackets and playoff postulation that seems to follow every week of every season around like a black cloud on an otherwise sunny day, more people are watching. Though the NCAA is technically the aforementioned non-profit organization, the goal is to raise money -- non-taxed money, that is. Put your business owner overalls on for a minute, please. What successful businessman in his or her right mind would completely change the foundation of a business that has been steadily (putting it mildly) raking in increased profits on a yearly basis for the past decade?

Apart from the NCAA paying the rent, so to speak, the BCS makes college football matter 365 days a year. No other sport, professional or college, elicits more banter, more venom, more overanalyzing during the offseason than NCAA football. There is something beautiful about not knowing everything all the time. Like a great horror movie, the BCS reveals all that it desires to reveal and leaves the rest to the imagination as its fans wait with bated breath for the sequel -- one that arrives with each new season.

The dirty truth is that the BCS does not need to be changed. Why? Because it works. The official BCS media guide is quick to point out that before 1992, only eight times in the previous 56 years had the No. 1 and 2 teams met for the national title. Since 1998, the top two programs have met every season. That is the self-admitted goal of the BCS. Nothing more, nothing less. But to understand why college football is not going to a playoff system, to understand why it should not, is purely about math and money. As attendance figures rise, as contracts are on the verge of quadrupling in a mere 10-year span, fans must consider one thing: If they really, truly do not like the BCS, maybe they should stop showing up. Only then will you find a few who will admit that the title of this article is not blasphemy at all.

The BCS is not all that bad, folks.

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About Bart Doan

Bart has been with Realfootball365.com for about six months and thoroughly enjoys writing for the site. He has been featured for his writings on college football in The Sporting News, The Indianapolis Star, Sports Illustrated, and on CBS Sportsline.com. When he's not drowning himself in the...
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