First, I want to thank Tony Alba and his partner, recovering journalist Andy Bagnato, and Kristin Pflipsen and their entire staff for the tremendous job they have done this week. And it's also important to posthumously thank architect Edward Bowes, who designed the Camelback Inn back in the 1930s.
Who?But mostly, I want to thank you for your kindness during the year. Although I left the newspaper business many years ago, I still feel like a member of this fraternity and you have allowed me to do that. This is where I belong.
Yeah... Welcome back, bud.The state of the BCS? It is healthy and strong. The first year of a new cycle is always an exciting time as we begin a relationship with a new television rights holder and with the bowls. And we look forward to the next three years under this agreement.
Healthy? Yes, thanks for asking. We had a major scare in December, but thanks to a spoon full of Sugar (Bowl), we made it.In the past few weeks, I have received dozens of calls and e-mails from folks who have said, "Congratulations & the BCS got it right again."
Hi, Mike. Hi, Jim.Of course, they are calling because tonight's matchup is the one that folks want to see. But for me, "the BCS got it right" has a different meaning.
The BCS got it right because University of Tulsa student-athletes, from my part of the country, were able to visit the USS Arizona memorial and museum. It was the first trip to Hawaii for many. For some, it will be the only time -- only because of a bowl game.
Thank goodness that a flight from Oklahoma to Hawaii is cheap. We wouldn't want to spend more money than what we could possibly recoup.An(d), the BCS got it right because Kansas State students were able to visit New York City. Many for the first time and some probably for the only time. Maybe some of us take trips to Times Square for granted, and Yankee Stadium for granted, and we are wrong to do that. The BCS got it right because those students had the experience of a lifetime -- only because of a bowl game.
Or, maybe, because of the undisclosed gifts that awaited the players in New York. I know I love me some undisclosed gifts when I land in a city. Xbox? Why, yes.Other athletes toured civil rights museums, greeted soldiers returning from war, and visited hospitals to visit with sick children.
And it seems that some of us have forgotten what it was like to be 19 years old. And to have someone older and wiser quietly and discreetly create an experience for us and then step back and watch us enjoy it. That's what the keepers of the game have done by preserving the bowl system. The university presidents and conference commissioners will not lose sight of the fact that college football is not professional football. This game is played by students. And it has cherished traditions that cannot simply be tossed aside.
I remember being 19. I was a freshman at a technical college. No adult created an experience, only to stand back and watch me enjoy it. We had to find a creepy guy just to buy our beer, we weren't going to let him hang around to watch us drink it.I knew the BCS got it right when I saw the happiness on the faces of celebrating athletes from schools like Florida International and Syracuse and Washington and San Diego State after their bowl victories. And did you see those TCU players dancing and hugging and dashing around the field? Winning their bowl game was way more than simply a great way to end a season -- it moment that will be etched into their hearts forever.
I knew the BCS got it right when Boise State's kicker missed one against Nevada, only to drop to his knees because he cost his school (and conference) millions of dollars. Sure, they got to win a bowl game. Sure, their season was pretty good, finishing with only one loss a season after going undefeated and being forced to play in a non-championship BCS game. Make the kick, make millions. Miss the kick, make thousands. But, either way, you won't win any crystal.Of course, we know that some people want something different. I appreciate their feelings. But I have to believe that most of those people don't realize they would snatch those opportunities away from the students. But please don't kid yourselves --i t would happen.
Name a sport with a multi-team playoff that also has a second vibrant neutral-site post-season event. Even though a few bowls probably would survive in a playoff era, certainly the athletes in the playoff would not have a bowl experience. A great part of college tradition would die, and that would be a shame.
I still remember the old days, when New Year's Day meant everything to a college football fan. No, the athletes that would play in a playoff game would miss the bowl experience. Maybe if you could work it out to where they got a 360 AND a PS3 -- and promised not to send them to Detroit -- they'd get over it.The teams would fly in for their games and they'd fly out afterward. For the 7 or 15 schools that lose, their season would be over. No celebration. No bowl-week memories.
So, the memories of staying a week in Boise would trump a few days of being in Birmingham? Well, I suppose if you were Ball State, but I bet Boise State or TCU would take a trip to Bama any day.And I certainly understand the lure of filling out a bracket, kicking up your feet with a bag of Tostitos and a jar of queso and enjoying the excitement of a four-week playoff from your sofa at home.
A bracket?! Surely you don't work for the NCAA while mentioning filling out a BRACKET, for crying out loud! That might insinuate that people are gambling on an amateur sport! Oh, you don't work for the NCAA? Really? So, there really is no real national champion? Well, what the hell are we doing here?But is that in the best interest of the students, whose voices too frequently get lost in this debate?
Also lost on the players: The check that, "is in the mail."Listen to Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy, on his bowl experience: "We had a blast. If they got rid of the BCS and the BCS bowls, then a lot of teams would not be able to have opportunities like we have had the last couple of years."
By "a lot of teams," McElroy means, "Any non-SEC conference team that has the misfortune of losing a game."And listen to Oregon State coach Mike Riley: "I like the opportunity for a lot of teams to have a successful season and to get a chance to go to a bowl game. We don't need to limit that to whatever the playoff deal is."
Because nothing says successful quite like finishing 6-7, 3-5 in Conference-USA and fighting to a nail-biting 52-24 loss in the New Mexico Bowl.And what about the many avid fans who love going to bowl games? Many plan their family vacations around their school's trip to a bowl. Would they go to Miami one week, then to Pasadena, then to Phoenix?
If you can afford a last-second trip from Wisconsin to Pasadena in early January -- with your family -- I don't see multiple trips being an issue. Unless, of course, you gave up six months of beer money to do so.I talked to a Fort Worth man who proudly told me that his grandfather played for SMU in the 1936 Rose Bowl. Can you imagine someone 60 years from now, telling a stranger that his granddad played in the 2025 first-round game between Troy and Wisconsin in Madison?
I remember a friend telling me how pissed his dad was when an undefeated BYU was awarded the 1984 national championship over one-loss (and one-tie) Florida. Thank goodness this will never again be an option.In a playoff, there would be no week in the sun.
Well, that would mean one of two things: 1. There would be SEVERAL weeks in the sun, or, 2. There would be home games awarded and maybe Wisconsin, Oregon, Virginia Tech and UConn would host first round games. Bummer.As the people responsible for life on campus, it's the job of university presidents and commissioners to look out for the best interest of the student-athletes -- and that means preserving the regular season and protecting America's bowl tradition and experience.
Does that mean that Delaney can argue that the regular season is too important for the Suspended 6, and we could see them on the field in week one? I hope so.I am disappointed, but not surprised, by the childish invective from a few undertakers who throw stones but are accountable in no way for the future of the game and for the athletes' experience. But you know that words like cartel, commies, corruption and criminal when used to describe the BCS event are just plain silly. At its heart, the BCS is a group of schools collaboratively doing what is in the best interest of their students. And for the game.
"Although I am fully in favor of the BCS 'cartel' being termed 'corrupt,' let me add my own 'C' word to the list: Comical.'" - Jim Souhan, Star Tribune.And, for goodness sake, what kind of corrupt cartel would create an arrangement where TCU can win the Rose Bowl? The Horned Frogs played in the Granddaddy of Them All solely BECAUSE of the BCS. And Boise State was THIS close to playing in tonight's game. The BCS is fair, and this year -- more than ever -- proves it.
My definition of "THIS close" must be wrong. I see it as a missed field goal in a national semifinal. Mr. Hancock sees it as a closer-than-expected, edge-of-your-seat 56-17 win by Auburn in the SEC title game, or a last-second, 17-point Civil War-win by Oregon.I have enjoyed keeping our side of the debate respectful, in keeping with the dignity of higher education. And I will continue to do that. After the unthinkable event in Tucson, I pray that we all re-assess our attitude toward each other.
Did he really just pull the political-assassination-attempt corollary card? Yeah, dignity and respect all the way.I understand that short memories have applied a coat of white-out to the happiness that greeted the BCS when it was first implemented 14 years ago. Nearly everyone wrote the same thing: At last, the BCS brought college football what it had long been missing: a guaranteed match-up of the top two teams in a bowl game.
Not "white-out," sir, rather another page. The "integrity" of the B1G 10/Pac-10 match up in the Rose Bowl has been compromised. I'm sorry if you feel that the TicketCity Bowl may be in jeopardy.Please remember the great benefits of the BCS.
How could I forget? The SEC is crammed down my throat every. Single. Day. For six months. Funny thing is, I don't really mind. Those kids can ball. My issue is that I have to put up with a schedule that makes the Super Bowl seem like it's played the Thursday after the conference title games.You know the numbers, but it is important to place them on the table once again: the top two teams met in bowl games eight times in 58 years before the BCS. Since then? 13 of 13 by BCS standards, and 10 of 13 by the media poll, including the last seven years in a row. Those facts are impossible to ignore.
You know what else is impossible to ignore? You, sir. You are still making this up as you go along. You have already irreparably changed the course of college football. You have changed how you determine your No. 1 and No. 2. You have allowed a 12th game, and not because of concern for player safety. Some conferences have a 13th game. Occasionaly, two teams play 14 contests. That's NFL territory. You have allowed cheats and liars to play in your games. This, sir, I cannot ignore. (Sorry, back to the tongue-in-cheek.)And please hear this: the BCS has sparked the rise of new competitors who have stormed into the upper level of college football over the past few years. Boise State, TCU, Hawaii, Central Florida, Oklahoma State, Connecticut, Oregon, Nevada, Cincinnati, Texas Tech, Louisville, Stanford and Wake Forest are just a few.
These teams have certainly gone up a tax bracket or two, there is little doubt about that. If they paid taxes, that is.This horde of new schools at the top table has been good for the game There is a new populism never before imagined. A new equity that could not have been envisioned just 10 years ago. New hope that previously was inconceivable. New national fervor for a game that some believed had reached its zenith, but whose potential now seems unlimited -- a tree growing to the sky.
Equity is right. Ten years ago Miami, Oklahoma and Ohio State were kings. Now, after some trouble, they are trying to get back into the spotlight. Ten years from now, when they're winning again, we'll talk about how Auburn is building itself back into a national power after the crippling sanctions brought to them in 2013 -- long after Cam Newton has left, and immediately following Gene Chizkik's departure for the NFL.How has the BCS done this?
It is very simple: by providing unprecedented access to the top-tier bowl games, by maintaining the focus on the regular season and by enhancing the entire bowl system that provides a foothold for programs on their way up.
Bill Snyder at Kansas State talked about how he used the incentive of playing in a bowl game to almost literally bring the Wildcats up from "worst" to "first," and said it very well: "Where the bowl system helped Kansas State go tells me if they had 100 bowls, they would probably be of value to a lot of programs throughout the country."
ESPN just crapped themselves.In conclusion, I want to ask you to remember that college football really is national treasure. We are very lucky to cover it, administer it, play it, coach it and play b-flat clarinet in its marching band.
I don't think there's anything else in the world to match the passion that we have in college football. Maybe World Cup, but maybe not.
World Cup: Boring, but billions watch it. BCS: Usually anticlimactic, but billions are spent on it.I had the great pleasure of visiting with former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien at the Fiesta Bowl. He was overwhelmed by the pageantry and the passion. A few years ago the top man at Wimbledon attended the Orange Bowl. I think neither one of them had ever seen anything quite like it.
A Canadian and a Brit walk into a college football game, hosted by Bill Hancock. The Brit, confused, asks "What is this game?" "Why, it's football," Hancock says. "Um, no it's--," the Brit starts before being interrupted by the Canuck. "It's AMERICAN football," says the Canadian. "It's a brutal combination of rugby, international football, mixed martial arts and drunken chess." This further confuses the Brit, but he thoroughly enjoys himself anyway. At halftime, the Brit asks Hancock if he could possibly export the game to England. "I'm not so sure," Hancock says. "Well, we pay our academy foot- I mean, soccer players very well. In fact, there are few opportunities around the world for a young man to make as many pounds at such a young age as he does here. Many use it as a way to help out their families, many of which are poor." Hancock glares at the Brit. After several awkward seconds, Hancock tells the man, "We don't pay these young men." The Brit is astonished. "But they are talented kids who deserve a cut of what they provide." With that, Hancock is incensed. He tells the Brit that he is no longer welcome at a college football game, but that he can finish watching this one in order to preserve the integrity of the hosting party.Tonight's atmosphere will be awesome. I suggest that you visit the field for just a minute before the national anthem to take in the whole scene.
And then, in the wild party after the game, one group of athletes will hold the crystal football aloft. They will be celebrating for the sheer joy of reaching a lifetime goal.
But without even realizing it, they will be rejoicing for those other 68 groups of students who were able to savor the bowl experience this year. When they lift that crystal football, they will be symbolically lifting up the collegiate model. They will be celebrating the game of college football that is thriving in no small part because the BCS got it right.
Because they received $500 in free gifts! Or they left Oregon for sunny Pasadena -- for 10 DAYS! Or the coaches just earned several thousand dollars in bonuses that they don't have to share! Because, not matter what the future says, we all know Auburn won the vacated title! Because, no matter what the future holds, asking for money to play, beating your girlfriend or selling your trophies has no bearing whatsoever on the integrity of the game that you and this country loves. The BCS has figured out what every other money printing business has: Integrity is like the Gimp. He's around, but kept in a small, dark cage only to be summoned when the weary and suspicious show up. Of course, that's better than being Honesty. He's been buried under mountains of cash for 14 years.
