New Colorado State Athletic Director Jack Graham didn’t think much of the idea.
"That’s a last resort…it’s like taking a gun into a bar,” he lamented. “I would hope we can get together and do the right thing without resorting to that.”
Graham was responding to a question about the ongoing saga of the Bowl Championship Series, and what the next few weeks may hold in store for the BCS and its grip on college football. He was asked if he could see any legal action being launched if the BCS rejects the recent effort of the Mountain West Conference to gain Automatic Qualifying status for the BCS games for 2012 and 2013.
Based on facts alone, the Mountain West’s application SHOULD be approved. Those of us who follow the MW – along with the other non-BCS conferences – have seen enough stuff happen before to know that the BCS committee is not likely to let facts get in the way of their cartel.
Graham is not optimistic, nor is anyone else, that a just and fair decision will come out of the upcoming meeting of the BCS Presidential Oversight committee. The gut feeling is that the committee will find some abstract reason – driven largely by agenda’s and greed – to keep things the way they are. After all, the majority of the committee is made up of Presidents and Chancellors from BCS schools. What’s their motivation to want to share their winnings?
That didn’t stop the MW from filing an application for AQ inclusion, starting next season. It’s an application that’s well founded and strong on facts. The conference met two of the three criteria for AQ status, and barely missed the third. But they also outperformed both the Big East AND Atlantic Coast Conferences in the same categories – and both those conferences have been granted “waivers” for as long as a decade. The MW has proven it has a better case for inclusion in the BCS than either the Big Least or the ACC.
It probably won’t matter.
In a brilliant move by the conference administration, the application was filed in almost press release form. Rather than send it in the normal way, and wait for a response the way you normally would…and then complained loudly AFTER that application was denied, they were proactive instead. They made the filing of an application very public just as they filed it, thereby alerting anyone and everyone that would listen that not only is the conference qualified – better qualified that two current BCS conferences – but that they weren’t going to simply accept the status quo without a fight.
So for the sake of this argument, let’s go ahead and assume that the committee does as expected, and denies the application on the grounds that, well…they will make up some imaginary “grounds.” Is Graham right in rejecting the idea of legal action or government involvement? Or should Colorado’s two Senators and/or someone for the state’s congressional delegation step up and begin action against the BCS cartel?
I don’t agree with Jack Graham on this one. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: Nothing bad has ever come out of government involvement in sports issues. People like to complain that Congress should have much more important things to do that worry about baseball players taking steroids or stuff like the BCS. But in truth, these ARE things Congress should be involved in. Pro and college sports are a major commerce in this country. There are HUGE amounts of money and jobs involved for a school like Colorado State when you're talking about what size a piece of the pie they are going to share from a more fair and equitable system. People’s livelihood’s are at stake.
And besides, wouldn’t it be nice to see this current do-nothing congress get off their collective backsides and do SOMETHING except filibuster month after month? Solve the mess that is the BCS and maybe this congress won’t go down in history as the single worst congress in the history of congresses.
Yes, I realize that Sen. Mark Udall and Sen. Mike Bennett are among the 435 people trying to get re-elected, err, solve the country’s economic woes, but wouldn’t it be nice if they would each step up to the plate and show that they have the back of the state’s under-funded institutions of higher learning? These establishments are getting blatantly ripped off by the BCS establishment. It will take an act of congress to correct it.
Graham may not want to see legal action be taken against the BCS, but “bringing a gun into the bar” is probably the only way this BCS cartel can be brought to justice.
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