Mail call: The BCS shows its yellow belly
Here’s a sample of feedback on Tuesday’s column on the BCS decision to put TCU and Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl instead of pitting either of those undefeated teams against AQ programs.
From Rich:
Great article and hits the nail right on the head. I don’t think I could have said it better in a hundred attempts. I do have a question, “why the wait to change things until 2012, why not now?” This is the same as when Governor Huntsman put the deadline 1 1/2 years out invoking the illegal immigrant laws that no one wants to enforce now. Why wait? What is the sense in that? When people are sick we don’t wait to call for a doctor appointment, (it might take a year or so to finally see the doctor), but we don’t wait to find help! Right now NCAA Football needs urgent care, if you know what I mean? If there was a big enough outcry for justice we could get this done a lot sooner than 2012!!! Maybe even as soon as 2009! I would like to see an effort to do just that. Thanks for your good columns and view points -
Me: I don’t know, Rich, but when Congress gets involved, all contracts can be messed with, everything is on the table. If the BCS is viewed to be a false advertising for a championship, there will have to be all kinds of changes in how the BCS presents itself in those contracts. There is a hearing and a subcommittee vote today on a bill that will declare it false advertising for the BCS to call itself a national championship system.
From Kip:
Perfect! Five minutes after the announcement of the BCS bowl schedule, I emailed their committee and called them nothing but a bunch of cowards. They knew exactly what they were doing to protect their precious conferences form being embarrassed once again by a lowly MWC team. As you so rightly stated, with MAYBE the exception of Alabama, TCU would kick the a– of any of the others and that wouldn’t be acceptable. The only reason Utah got to play Alabama last year was they believed Utah had no chance of winning and once and for all their program and their personal existence would be justified. Big mistake. Utah kicked ass and they weren’t about to let that happen again. So to hell with them. Hopefully, some day, there will be some fairness and justice for all, and the BCS will be just an unpleasant memory.
Me: The BCS kids are catching a lot of heat. You should read a similar column from Washington Post columnist John Feinstein, who has a very high national profile with books such as “A Season on the Brink,” and others.
From Gary Suzukawa:
As a fan of the University of Hawai’i Warriors, I am certainly no fan of the BSU Broncos, or the TCU Horned Frogs, but the BCS showed how deep their truly un-American bigotry resides within their collective hearts. This Fiesta Bowl match-up proves that money is the root of all evil. To have a non-BCS team beat a BCS team 4 out of 5 times would destroy any argument for the continued BCS process. BSU’s schedule is ALWAYS used against them, but no BCS school wants to schedule them. Land of the free, home of the brave? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but only if you belong to a BCS conference? Talk about a clear-cut case of un-American bias. We take pride in the fact that we now honor our military, police, fire, and emergency personnel, but still allow the bigotry of the BCS to continue? Why? Non-BCS players can’t play professional baseball, football, basketball, hockey or any other pursuit? Why can something so biased be allowed to continue? Money-Money-Money-Money-Money! Where else in America can a small handful of people continue to blatantly display bigotry, and get away with it, but BCS college football? Exclusionism is so totally against the principles this nation was founded on that it blows me away. I am an American of Japanese ancestry, who was brought up to be simply, an American. I served my country for more than 29-years, retiring as an Army master-sergeant. But I am ashamed of the bias and bigotry that the BCS represents, and ALLOWED by our nation’s law-makers to continue! President Obama said while he was still candidate Obama, that he would do something about that if he were elected. Well, Sir? What ARE you going to do about this totally un-American blight? Is the BCS above the law? Can they continue exclusionary practices where only SOME Americans get to play for a national collegiate championship? If now is not the time to install a playoff system, that involves ALL conferences, then WHEN?
Me: Gary, that’s the debate of the century in the sports word that involves billion of dollars and every university president. The presidents of universities are the ones who allowed the BCS to hijack this system. Every other college sports has a championship system decided on the track, court, field, pool or course.