BCS: the rich get richer and the poor, well they just get snubbed

This archived article was written by: David Osborne

It’s no secret in the world of sports that the Bowl Championship Series for Division-I football can be a little screwed up at times, or so that’s the way it has seemed the last few years. Does it really matter the strength of schedule? I mean the last time I checked a win was a win and a loss was still a loss. It doesn’t matter if you lose to the best team in the country or the very worst team in the country.
Is it really fair that teams with so called “stronger” schedules deserve to be rewarded year after year, while teams that don’t supposedly have as strong of schedules get snubbed constantly. It’s no secret that the BCS has been broken into by non-BCS conference teams over the last couple of years, and even better those teams have a good record against teams that are in BCS conferences. In 2004 the University of Utah ran (and passed) all over Pittsburgh. Then in 2006 Boise State broke their way into the Fiesta Bowl. They ended up edging their way past the Oklahoma Sooners. Finally in 2007 Hawaii played Georgia, but ended up losing.
Sports analysts are constantly saying that the smaller and less popular colleges don’t deserve a spot in the BCS. Isn’t it true that all of the colleges should have an equal opportunity to play for a National Championship if they have earned it by winning all of their games? The analysts argue that colleges that are not in the major conferences like the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, or the Pac 10 will not be able to hold up against colleges from those major conferences. This may be true, but looking at the last couple of year’s records in BCS games the small conference teams can hold their own.
So I think it’s time that the whole country faces the music on why small colleges don’t make the cut in the BCS, small colleges just don’t bring in the revenue that the large colleges do. Colleges in small conferences don’t have the booster clubs like large colleges do. I wish that everybody would just give up the argument of strength of schedule and just say it’s economics. Unfortunately the world has changed college sports and it’s not for the better.
Booster clubs must meet the needs of their schools and that means the teams with large booster clubs are going to make the cut in the end for large bowl games. So here’s the final word, money matters and that means that no matter how hard a someone tries to help a small team break into the BCS and get some of the money for their conference the rich teams snatch it away and snub the small colleges again. Until next time hopefully somebody will be able to play Robin Hood and finally rob from the rich and give to the poor.