College Football Rankings: What the BCS Commissioners Really Think
A meeting of five of the six BCS conference commissioners, along with WAC commissioner Karl Benson, got ugly last week in New York, as the commissioners used the platform to vent their frustrations about the current BCS system.
Karl Benson argued that the non-BCS conferences deserve more, while the five BCS commissioners argued that the non-BCS conferences deserve much, much less.
Beyond the daytime TV atmosphere of these bickering commissioners, though, the event shed a lot of light into what the various powers really think and not just what they're forced to say or what commentators, who are supposed to sound neutral, say.
Here are some of the statements from the commissioners and what those statements tell us about their state of mind.
Larry Scott, Pac 10 Commissioner: We're Just Being Politically Correct
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What He Said
"The six (BCS) conferences have bent over backwards and tried to be politically correct to their own detriment, probably further than they had to, maybe should have."
What He Was Thinking
There's not really any good reason for the non-AQ teams to get to play in the Bowl Championship Series, and there never has been.
Even when Utah and Boise State did beat BCS teams in BCS bowls, it should have been other eligible teams instead. Sure, the 2007 Fiesta Bowl was a good game, but who's to say that an Oklahoma-Cal matchup would have been even better.
Jim Delaney, Big 10 Commissioner: You're Stealing Our Games
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What He Said
"The problem, is [non-AQ teams'] big stage takes away opportunities for my teams, to play on the stage they created in 1902."
What He Was Thinking
The national championship aside, the BCS games were not designed to allow the top teams in the country to play each other.
They were designed for the top teams of the top conferences to play each other.
The Rose Bowl is not supposed to be a national matchup, it's supposed to be a Big Ten team against a Pac-10 team, and they're being forced against their will to pit Wisconsin against TCU instead.
Even worse, because they're being forced to make concessions to TCU, one of the Big Ten co-champions, Michigan State, is being left out of the BCS games altogether.
Dan Beebe, Big 12 Commissioner: We Can Take It All Back
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What He Said
"Don't push it past this because if you push it past this, the Big 12's position is we'll just go back to the old (bowl) system."
What He Was Thinking
Before the BCS was put in place, there was never a problem with small schools getting in.
A team like BYU could be ranked No. 1 in the country and still be relegated to some minor bowl against a barely-eligible team. Unfortunately, that stoked too much controversy, so we had to put together a formality (the BCS) to ensure that everyone understood that small teams couldn't be champions.
But if the BCS isn't going to fix that problem, we might as well just do away with the formality.
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Karl Benson, WAC Commissioner: We've Proven We Belong
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What He Said
"I think the group of five [non-automatic qualifying BCS conferences] has established value in the last five years."
What He Was Thinking
This is football. What should matter is what happens on the field. Whereas all the other commissioners just care about money or TV ratings or a sense of entitlement, we want to see the best possible matchups on the field.
If there are any doubts about whether TCU or Boise State or Utah are the best team in the country, give them a chance to prove it.
And when they've been given the chance, they have in fact shown that they are every bit as good as the teams they got to play.
Dan Beebe, Big 12 Commissioner: It's About Economics
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WHAT HE SAID:
"We've Jerry-rigged the free market system to the benefit of those institutions and a lot are institutions that don't even fill their stadiums."
WHAT HE WAS THINKING:
This is about money. This isn't about finding the best team in the country, this is business. A Big 12-SEC match-up sells. A Big Ten-Pac-10 match-up sells. There's no market value in teams like Hawaii, Boise State, Utah, TCU, or others. We're trying to make as much money as we can in this venture, and we're being artificially forced to put together bad games that nobody cares about.
John Marinatto, Big East Commissioner: I'm Not Here
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WHAT HE SAID:
Nothing.
WHAT HE WAS THINKING:
I'm not saying anything. See how good I am? I'm not going to ruffle any feathers. Please don't take our bid away.
Jim Delaney, Big 10 Commissioner: This Is Our House
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WHAT HE SAID:
"I think you're really testing. I think people who have contributed a lot have, what I call, 'BCS defense fatigue.'... You have to understand who brought what to the table. Who's continuing to give and who's continuing to get."
WHAT HE WAS THINKING:
We're done pretending that this system is fair. We paid for the BCS. We bought this system. Letting other teams in, in the interests of fairness, is not why the BCS was created. You want fairness? You want everything to be put on the field? You want everyone to have a chance to be the best without regard for where they come from? Try basketball.
Let's stop pretending. This is college football. There are no equal chances here. You get what we let you have, and nothing more.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
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