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Congress jawbones BCS reps
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON � A revolt against Division I-A football's postseason structure
led by the president of Conference USA member Tulane is gaining sympathy in
high places.
The Bowl Championship Series shuts out too many schools in its goal of
crowning a college football champion and needs to be repaired, U.S. senators
told representatives of the bowl system Wednesday.
"I don't know if you guys know how it looks to fans of teams that aren't
part of this system," Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del, said. "It looks un-American. It
really does. It looks unfair. It looks like a rigged deal."
Created in 1998 by the six most powerful college conferences, the BCS
guarantees that the champions of those conferences will play in one of the
four most lucrative postseason bowl games, leaving only two at-large berths.
Former Brigham Young coach LaVell Edwards said the BCS system also makes it
harder for teams outside the alliance to recruit, since there is little
chance the players will ever be able to compete for a national championship.
BYU won the national championship in 1984, more than a decade before the BCS
was created by an agreement between ABC Television, a few major bowls, and
the Big East, ACC, Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, Pac-10 and independent Notre Dame.
Division I-A football is the only college sport not to have a playoff
system.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a BYU graduate, said the current system raises
enough questions of fairness that it is in college football's best interest
to fix it instead of forcing Congress to intervene.
NCAA President Myles Brand said he is open to a system that would be more
inclusive, but does not believe there is a need for radical changes or
adoption of a playoff system.
Harvey Perlman, chancellor of the University of Nebraska, said the current
system is the fairest way to determine a national champion and provides
adequate opportunity for schools outside the BCS to play their way into
contention.
A team that finishes in the top 12 of the BCS standings is eligible for
consideration, and a team in the top six automatically gets a spot.
And Keith Tribble, chairman of the Football Bowl Association and chief
executive officer of the Orange Bowl Committee, said the bowl games are
attracting more fans, benefiting their host communities and generating more
money than ever, paying out $800 million in the last five years.
"For the past 90 years, bowl games have been the heart and soul of college
football. It has never been healthier," Tribble said.
Tulane President Scott Cowen disagrees. In 1998, the Green Wave went through
the season undefeated, but were shut out of the top-tier games. A year
later, the same thing happened to Marshall.
"There is no doubt in my mind that the current system is unjust and
unjustifiable," said Cowen.
Cowen often points out that the Green Wave recently came within an eyelash
of dropping football altogether because of the financial and competitive
inequities imposed on schools outside the BCS.
Instead, Cowen decided to fight rather than quit, forming the Presidential
Coalition on Athletic Reform, which includes the CEO's of 44 I-A schools
that are not part of the BCS.
This year, Tulane's fellow C-USA member, Texas Christian, is 8-0 but was
only 12th in the latest BCS standings and could be shut out of a lucrative
bowl.
The projected revenue for the four 2004 BCS games is $118 million, but only
about $6 million will go to the non-BCS schools unless one of them qualifies
for a major bowl game.
Cowen's group is scheduled to meet with the presidents of the conferences in
the BCS system Nov. 16 to discuss potential changes to the BCS.
"If they are allowed to continue that kind of monopoly, they will suffer the
same fate of any other monopoly in the country. They will become bloated,
inefficient ... and eventually kill the golden goose," said Sen. Bob
Bennett, R-Utah.
�2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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contributed to this report.
02.23.07 11:02 AM
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