mormonrasta wrote:

Conosticator wrote:

Here is an example of the problem.

In 2003 the 66 BCS members split approximately $90 million in bowl revenue. That same year the 55 non-BCS members split about $6 million. Supposedly a non-BCS team could qualify for an "at-large" bid but not did. Even being undefeated was not good enough.

That was the reason for the Congressional investigation into possible anti-trust violations. As a result the BCS made the rules slightly more balanced but still has locked out the non-BCS schools from any chance to play for the NC since their control of the coaches poll effectively prevents it.

$90 million sounds like alot until you divide that up among 66 teams. 1.36 million doesn't even buy 4 games of Nick Saban. The real money is made on regular season home games, boosters, and regular season TV deals. Ask Notre Dame to choose between their tv deal and the BCS and they say "see ya" to the BCS.

The revenue disparity only gets worse if there is a playoff. It would result in BCS conference teams playing alot more games thus earning more money while the subsequent reduction of the bowls would hurt nonBCS teams more than BCS teams.

What happens if two non-BCS teams are ranked in the top 14? Sorry, only one gets to play in a BCS bowl. They don't allow more than a single (the get out of anti-trust jail free card) team non-BCS team to play in one of the BCS bowls in any given year. Of course, you are in the BCS you can even play for the NC despite having two losses.

That is not true. Only 1 automatic bid from the other conferences, but they can have an at large bid. Straight from the BCS website:

No more than one such team from Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Sun Belt Conference, and the Western Athletic Conference shall earn an automatic berth in any year. If two or more teams from those conferences satisfy the provisions for an automatic berth, then the team with the highest finish in the final BCS Standings will receive the automatic berth, and the remaining team or teams will be in the pool of teams eligible for selection by the bowls as at-large teams.

Yea that $1.36 million for each BCS team is sure a paltry amount compared to the $0.1 million that each non_BCS team received. My heart goes out to those poor BCS teams that have to struggle so much for so little revenue.

You also fail to mention that the BCS automatic qualifiers just need to have 9 wins and be conference champs. The (one at-most) non-BCS "automatic qualifier" has to meet additional criteria of being ranked in the top 14 of the final BCS poll or be ranked in the top 16 if it is ranked above the champion of one of the automatic qualifier BCS conferences.

Then assuming a 2nd non-BCS team also was undefeated or had only one loss (only chance for a non-BCS team to be ranked high enough to even be considered), it then is just part of the "at-large" pool and can easily lose out to a BCS team with both lower ranking and more losses.

Consequently, until such time as two non-BCS teams are invited to the BCS bowls I stand by my previous statement that it can't happen. Between the current BCS rules and the fact that the BCS bowls have a vested interest in selecting a BCS school, it can't happen.

The current BCS selection criteria reminds me of a company I worked for that was required by the Feds to post certain job openings. Whenever they had a specific person in mind (either within the company or a particular possible applicant) they would write the job description so that it sounded great, had many specific areas of "required expertise and experience", and enough other very unique requirements that guaranteed only the targeted individual would qualify.

One of my managers even went so far as to obtain the resume of the targeted individual and write the job requirements straight from the person's resume. Of course the position was officially posted for all applicants, but the requirements when combined with the manager's final approval ensured that only the targeted individual received a job offer.

The BCS rules with the Bowls having the final say in the at-large selections is just such a shell game.

If the current multi-year BCS rules review results in a change to allow two non-BCS conference champions (one proposal would do that), then we might see two. Until then, it's one or nada.

Also, I'll take the paltry $1.36 million over the $0.1 million any day Rasta.