Conference Realignment: BCS Officials Won't Succeed in Having a Smaller Impact

Conference realignment has become a cutthroat process. Get out or get left behind seems to be the popular feeling in college football, and the BCS is a huge contributing factor to the pressure teams are facing.

Officials recognize the shortcomings of the system and are looking to implement changes that would bring stability to the system, rather than chaos.

According to The Washington Post, BCS executive director Bill Hancock said,

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“I don’t think any of us are happy that the BCS is one of the contributing factors to conference realignment. It’s certainly not the only (factor), by any means. The BCS was never intended to be a divisive event. To the extent that the BCS can be a part of lending stability to the conferences, I think that’s what everybody would like to see.”

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And that's what it all boils down to.

The BCS shouldn't stand in the way of conference realignment, but the fact that schools are clawing their way into conferences for automatic qualifying makes the BCS largely responsible for the conference realignment mess.

That can't be the case, and the BCS knows it. Even if they don't prevent conference realignment from happening, they don't want to be a contributing factor.

Unfortunately, their attempts to bring stability to college football are futile. The Pac-16 super conference didn't happen, but there is nothing preventing schools from forming a cash-cow super conference of that nature.

The SEC is bringing in Texas A&M and Missouri already, and schools across the nation are shuffling all over the place, chasing money and BCS benefits.

The damage is already done. They can ditch the automatic bowl bids beyond 2013, but it shouldn't dissuade teams from joining powerhouse conferences.

When you look at teams like Boise State, who don't have a chance at a National Championship regardless of how they perform, it's more about being taken seriously and evening the playing field than anything else.

Hancock goes on to say,

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“The BCS is so misunderstood. It was created to match up No. 1 vs. No. 2. And because of the way the critics have reacted to it, it has become more than that. It was never intended to be anything more than that. And in our minds, it’s not anything more than that. And it has been so successful in doing what it’s supposed to do it’s worth preserving and worth fighting for.”

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Like some sort of science experiment that has developed into some evil monster, the BCS is obviously a different sort of animal than the creators intended it to be—and it always will be. This notion that it's fixable or that it could have less of an impact just doesn't carry any merit.

You can expect changes to be made, but don't think for a second that teams are going to grow complacent and remain in their conferences if it's not in the best interest of the school. Teams are still looking to greener pastures, and nothing the BCS does will change that.

The BCS may be a misunderstood creature and the intention may have been to match up the top two teams in the country, but it's become much more than that and will continue to do so.