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Get Four
|  | NOVEMBER 27, 2003
By Keith Dunnavant Behind the Revolt in College Football Schools left out of the Bowl Championship Series are pushing for change -- and muttering about antitrust Highlights from college football, season of 2003: Oklahoma racks up one lopsided victory after another, ending its regular season by stomping Texas Tech 56-25. Michigan snuffs out Ohio State's hopes of a second consecutive national title by winning 35-21 in the 100th enactment of their archrivalry. And in Washington, the Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings on the latest threat to the American way of life, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). The senators listen gravely on Oct. 29 as Tulane University President Scott S. Cowen speaks for many other critics: "From our point of view, the BCS is unjust and unjustifiable." Huh? Unjustifiable? The Bowl Championship Series, created five years ago to end the perennial catfights over which football power deserves to call itself the nation's best? Alas, yes. The BCS, by demarcating football's haves from its have-nots, has created a catfight of its own, complete with threats from the outsider conferences about antitrust lawsuits. On Nov. 16, the parties met in New Orleans and emerged singing sweet songs of compromise: "Everybody acknowledged that the system has to change," says Cowen. "Now, it's just a question of how dramatically it will change." But the proof will be in the pigskin, and failure to close a deal could challenge the entire series and the megabucks it delivers. SUPERDIVISION. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Because college football long proved politically incapable of implementing a real playoff system, the BCS -- created by the major conferences and bowl games -- was billed as the next best thing. And indeed, it has infused the race for the mythical national championship with greater drama and credibility while generating a financial bonanza. This year, the six BCS conferences (Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10, and Southeastern) and independent powerhouse Notre Dame will share an estimated $90 million from the system. It works by guaranteeing the winner of each conference a seat in one of the four BCS bowls. The teams ranked No. 1 and 2 by a mathematical formula meet in the title game, which rotates each year among the four bowls. "The BCS has served college football very well," says Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford. "It has created a true national championship game while cleaning up the bowl invitation process." The BCS is no longer just a way to crown a champ, however. Within the 117-school Division 1-A football tier, the BCS conferences have evolved into a superdivision, a 62-college club that lavishes legitimacy and riches upon members while relegating the 55 excluded programs to irrelevance and relative poverty. The outsider schools will divide a mere $6 million from the BCS this year, unless one gets into a BCS bowl. To qualify, a non-BCS school must be ranked among the top six teams, according to the BCS formula. In such a case, the team also gets the fee for that game. DECLARING WAR. Ever since the BCS was launched, members of less prominent leagues, such as the Mid-American Conference and Conference USA, have complained that they're left out. They contend that the system not only makes them second-class citizens but also hurts them in recruiting, TV contracts, and the ability to compete financially against BCS schools. Twice this season, anti-BCS forces have testified before Congress, and before the latest hearing, Tulane's Cowen told BusinessWeek: "There are significant antitrust issues." Of course, a financial and competitive gulf has always existed between giants such as Michigan, Texas, and Oklahoma, and lesser lights such as Bowling Green, Southern Miss, and San Jose State. For decades, the major bowls and the team unofficially anointed No. 1 have been dominated by the programs that now make up the six BCS conferences. BCS school officials have insisted that their coalition merely reflects reality. "The BCS inherited a system," says Michael A. Tranghese, Big East commissioner. "The only difference is how the schools are chosen" for the bowls. Yet the BCS has become even more stratifying than the system it replaced. While the definition of a major program has varied through the years, allowing for at least the possibility of upward mobility, the BCS consortium seems to be fast assembling a permanent wall between major programs and wannabes.
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