Notre Dame: The Favored BCS Child

There have been many debates as to whether or not the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame have a favored status within the BCS.

True, they don't get an automatic berth like the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC champions do, but they do, as an independent, get an automatic berth if they finish in the top eight.

No other independent is afforded that luxury, nor do any of the non-BCS conferences have that same guarantee—they must finish in the top 12 (or top 16 and their ranking higher than a BCS conference champion.)

Irish apologists will point out that some BCS conference champions have had a lousy record, but because they are a BCS conference champion, they get a hall pass into a BCS bowl. After all, a No. 15 Big East champion should not get a bowl berth over say, a No. 11 Notre Dame team, should they?

Yes, they should.

Notre Dame does not play a demanding conference schedule. They have the luxury of picking and choosing (except for the traditional rivalries with USC, Michigan State and Navy) who they play and to some extent, where they play.

Notre Dame's Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick makes no bones about it—Notre Dame prefers a schedule model of 7-4-1. That's seven home games, four road games and one game at a neutral site. That model decidedly favors the Irish every year.

Take a look at Texas' schedule this year—their last four of six games are on the road. Or look at USC's schedule—four of their first six games are, or will be, on the road.

Because of contractual obligations to conference play, a team simply cannot get a guaranteed seven home games a year, year after year. They may get lucky for a stretch by scheduling FCS schools at home for non-conference play, but even the perennial SEC offenders are starting to do home-and-home formats out of pressure from football nation.

With the Irish in complete control over who and where they schedule, they are escaping the brutality of conference play. If you look at most of the elite teams, it's not their non-conference games that knock them down in the polls, it's their conference games that do it. Notre Dame bypasses that entire roadblock.

While Notre Dame can pick where they want to play, the Cal Golden Bears are busing their players down for the UCLA game due to budget cuts in the state. They can't get out of their every-other-year date at UCLA. It's contractual with the Pac-10.

Still, so far, there hasn't been definitive proof that the Irish are favored by the BCS.

Until now.

What is the BCS really all about? It's the Benjamins, and it is here where the Irish are clearly favored, and unjustly so, in the current BCS equation.

Each BCS conference gets approximately $18.3 million for its participation in the BCS bowls. If they send a second team to a BCS bowl (ie. Florida and Alabama both played in BCS bowls for the 2008 season), then the conference that sends a second team receives an additional $4.5 million.

The numbers don't lie— around $18.3 million for a 12 member conference averages out to about $1.525 million per team. If they send a second team to a BCS bowl, that comes out to roughly $1.875 million per team.

Notre Dame, however, has a "special" clause.

Notre Dame receives 1/66th of the net revenues after expenses.

No matter what.

That's right. They can have a 3-9 season and get 1/66th of the revenues for stinking badly—1/66th comes out to approximately $1.3 million dollars, by the way.

But there's more. If Notre Dame is selected as a BCS bowl participant, they are guaranteed a whopping $4.5 million. Period. All to themselves. No sharing with a conference.

When you consider that all the non-BCS conferences (MWC, WAC, MAC, C-USA and Sun Belt) get an aggregate of nine percent of revenues ($9.6 million, last year, $1.92 million per conference) and $4.5 million to ALL the non-BCS conferences ($900,000 per conference) if one of their members goes to a BCS bowl, clearly, there is some disparity.

A BCS conference team that sends a second team BCS bowling gets to keep the extra $4.5 million within its conference, rather than have to share it with the other BCS conferences. The non-BCS conferences have to share all of it.

Some persepctive, if you will.

Utah went to the Sugar Bowl this last January, and because of that, each non-BCS conference received around $1.92 million plus $900,000 for a grand total of $2.82 million. If you divide $2.82 million up equally among the nine members of the MWC, that's $313,000 per team.

Last year, Notre Dame received $1.3 million from the BCS and $750,000 for going to the Hawaii Bowl.

The MWC sent a team to a BCS BOWL and received roughly 2.82 mil as a conference. They then had to divvy up the revenues to each of its teams. Notre Dame received 1.3 for NOT going to a BCS bowl. And didn't divvy with anyone.

Does anyone wonder why Utah's Senator Orrin Hatch is ready to stand on the hill and die trying to convince everyone how unjust this system is?

Favored status? Notre Dame?

It's not even close.

*BCS revenues distributions source: 2009 BCS Media Guide

**Hawaii Bowl payout source: SheratonHawaiiBowl.com

***revenues are apporiximate