A Slap in the Face To TCU and Boise State?: Looking at the Fiesta Bowl

As hints and rumors started coming out about the 2010 Fiesta Bowl, college football fans around the country rose up in revolt. 

For fans of Boise State and TCU, it seemed like a calculated insult to prohibit them from playing against a Florida, Cincinnati, Iowa, or Georgia Tech.

Fans have started to come up with nicknames for the bowl, all related to the idea that the BCS worked to put TCU and Boise State together so as to not embarrass a team from the Big 10 or SEC.

A BCS Conspiracy?

Now, fan conspiracies regarding the BCS have some value, given that the SEC made it quite clear to the Sugar Bowl and the BCS that it wanted nothing to do with either Boise State or TCU.  No, the "greatest conference in America" could not see its fraudulent Gators get taken to the woodshed and have people question the greatness of the SEC.

So, given that the neither TCU or Boise State was going to get a shot at Florida, there were very few possibilities remaining.

The key decision came from the Fiesta Bowl.  The Fiesta had the opportunity to bring in Iowa or Penn State.  With either team, the Fiesta Bowl would have had no concern with selling out the stadium or with good TV ratings.

The only concern would be then whether TCU or Boise State would have the opportunity to beat down a weak Big 10 team.  But this was a real concern.

Add to this the state of the Orange Bowl.  The 2009 Orange Bowl featuring Virginia Tech against Cincinnati was a disaster at the gate and on TV, with about 15,000 or so empty seats and pulling a 5.4 rating, the worst rating for a BCS game ever.  Tickets were going by the thousands for $.99 and still nobody wanted them.

So, the Orange Bowl was not going to take Cincy no matter what and it needed payback to make up for such a horrible matchup.

In fact, the Orange Bowl has been suffering for the last few seasons, as its anchor tie to the ACC has been dragging the game down.  So, the Orange Bowl was given the Big 10 at-large as compensation for the disasters of the last few years.

So, in many ways, there were no other options for the BCS, given the situations with the Orange and Sugar Bowls.

The Role of Fox

Now, there is another monkey into the whole system.  Fox is in its last season of having the BCS rights.  Fox and the BCS have always been suspect allies.

Fox is not a college football broadcaster.  Sure, they have the regional Fox Sports networks, but those are just that: regional.  Ask the Pac-10 schools how much they appreciate the bad deal they have Fox Sports.

Fox refused to build upon its BCS rights by jumping into a major role in the broadcasting of regular season games.  Instead, it has remained an outsider.

Fox lacks the institutional understanding of college football.  As an NFL broadcaster, it instead thinks purely on matchups for TV.  And for Fox, it really wanted TCU and Boise State on the first Monday night after the end of Monday Night Football .

Fox looked at the possible teams out there and pushed the Fiesta into this matchup.

But you are thinking, "Didn't I read that last year's Poinsettia Bowl pulled only a 3.7 rating, the 15th highest rating of all the bowl games, even though it had two top-11 teams?"

So, are the Fox guys just stupid or are they crazy like a fox?

The Poinsettia Bowl Revisited

Last year TCU and Boise State met up in one of the most exciting bowl games of the season.  But it only pulled a 3.7, so that means that no one watched it, right?

The game took place on Dec. 23 and had the highest rating for a pre-Christmas bowl game last season.  Games played before Dec. 30 rarely draw higher than the high twos, so this was an impressive result for such an early-season game.

Now, take that same game and put it on the biggest stage of all of football, the Monday night of championship week and suddenly you have the makings of a ratings masterpiece.

Or so the people at Fox thought, not without reason.

College vs. Pro Football

The problem is that college football is not pro football.  Pro football does have its elite teams and its excluded teams, but at least every single team, be it Cleveland or New England, has a chance to make the Super Bowl at the end of the season.  It is a balanced system.

College football is the opposite.  It has an established caste system, with half the teams labeled not good enough at the beginning of the season.  Even teams like TCU and Boise State that had successful years the prior season are sent to the back of the line so that the names of college football can be hyped again.

For TCU and Boise State to reach a BCS bowl means that they have a chance to take on the world and show them all that the caste system is fundamentally flawed.  They want an opportunity to take down the names of college football.

In many ways it is a sign of respect.  The Big 10 and SEC know that their teams have a huge chance of being dominated by TCU and Boise State.  Even 'Bama is very happy that the Big 12 officials gave Texas a second chance. 

No one wants to face these upstarts, which is why teams such as TCU, Boise State, and BYU have such troubles getting out-of-conference home games with major programs.  TCU and Boise State expected to have a chance to dominate Tebow, but instead must prepare for the rematch of the century.

In many ways, Cincy is being disrespected even more than TCU or Boise State.  The SEC is not afraid of playing Cincy.  The Fiesta Bowl passed on Cincy.  Moreover, the Orange Bowl never wants Cincy again.  So, sorry Cincy.  Just because you got the "Gold Star" of BCS status, it does not mean that anyone respects you.

Another Motive for the Fiesta?

Now, the Fiesta could be motivated by an entirely different idea. 

It is anticipated that the Mountain West Conference will be gaining automatic qualifying status in a few years, becoming the seventh BCS conference.  Boise State may soon be a member of the MWC.

When the BCS expands to seven conferences, it is also anticipated that the Cotton Bowl will become the fifth BCS bowl member, now that the Cotton Bowl is being played at Jerry Jones' new Cowboys Stadium.

The Fiesta Bowl would prefer to remain the home BCS bowl for the Big 12, but may be looking at losing the Big 12 to the Cotton Bowl.  As such, it may look at the MWC to become its new anchor conference.

As such, this game is essentially trying out Boise State and TCU as possible long-term partners.  So, this is not a slap in the face at all (even though it appears at first glance), but instead an attempt at a love letter.

But, like many love letters, it has been poorly received.