Friday, May 1, 2009

BCS vs. Playoffs

It's become an issue in Washington now. It's a small issue, but one near and dear to my heart. I was a junior at Penn State the year that we went undefeated, and ended up number two. That year Nebraska, as usual running up scores on a long string of nobodies, was coached by Tom Osborne, who had never won a championship and made everyone feel sorry for him. Inexplicably, mid-season, Nebraska passed us in the polls, and ended up #1, all thanks to the soft-hearted voters of the BCS system.

(The Onion had a really funny piece about the BCS issue also.)

As much as I would love to see the BCS system in smoking ruins, and their families shamed for generations, I can't support government interference to make it happen. The bottom line is that college football is not a government agency. It is not a guaranteed public good or a commons. Government has no business getting involved in this matter. It's up to the colleges to decide - and us, the fans, as customers in a free market, by voting with our wallets and our TV viewing habits.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have got to be kidding me. I cannot believe with everything going on in the world, we having congressional hearing on the BCS. The priorities are upside down.

Thomas Paine Jr. said...

I know. It's populism. People get mad about sports, in the back of their mind they regard it as a) a right and b) a guaranteed institution like they think of the government and media, so politicians grandstand to make it look like they're fixing something. What a waste of time and attention.

Anonymous said...

The government needs to spend more time looking at itself and less power grabbing. If they really want to stop an unfair system, how about they start with their own 2 party politics.

The BCS is a private organization and as such should not be subject to micro-management from the knuckleheads in DC.