Food For Thought - The Curse of the Non-BCS!

 

In 2003, due to the rising controversies created by the BCS, the House Judiciary met to discuss the long-term affects of the BCS on college football. Although this was major news within the national media, very little space in newsprint or video presentation was provided by the major networks. Since Boise State and Appalachian State have created quite a stir within the last year, I thought it would be interesting to revisit the issue as some very distinguished members of the college football world would look like major prophets today. Lavell Edwards, the former Hall of Fame coach at BYU delivered a very moving speech that hit the nail on the head. For your review, here is his address in 2003.

Chairman Hatch, Ranking Member Leahy and distinguished members of the committee, my name is LaVell Edwards, and I am honored to be here this morning.

What I want to talk about today are dreams and opportunities. All of us dream about the great accomplishments we want to achieve in our lives. I‘ve spent my life with young athletes, and I can tell you that dreams are the fuel that drives them to excel. Now, there are dreams, and there are fantasies. A dream can come true, and a fantasy can’t. The difference is opportunity.

The problem with the Bowl Championship Series is that it prevents student-athletes at 54 universities from achieving the dream of ending the season ranked number one. Being a national champion is only a fantasy for these players. That’s because the BCS is stacked in favor of the teams from their six-conference alliance, who alone can play in the national championship game at a pre-determined bowl game site. Mr. Chairman, the BCS system not only disadvantages some players ability to compete, but also negatively impacts all bowl games. In addition, it creates a two-tiered recruiting system as well as an unfair imbalance between universities in terms of revenue derived from football.

The national champion selection has been altered greatly since the mid-80s. As Senator Hatch may have mentioned, I coached at BYU for 29 seasons, and in 1984 we won the national championship beating Michigan in the Holiday Bowl. Under today’s BCS scheme, that 1984 BYU team couldn‘t have played in a title game. The system wouldn‘t have allowed it. Over the course of my career, BYU appeared in 22 bowl games, finished 13 times among the Top-25 and produced a number of All-American quarterbacks. I‘ve had the pleasure of coaching some exceptional student-athletes through many exciting seasons.

Mr. Chairman, I‘d like to take you back to one of those the conclusion of the 1996 regular season the first year under what was then dubbed the Bowl Alliance, now the BCS. We were 13 and 1, on an 11-game winning streak, and ranked 5th in the nation heading into the bowl season that year. I was invited, along with the coaches of the other top-ranked teams to New York for ABC‘s announcement of which teams would play in the Rose, Fiesta, Orange and Sugar Bowls.

Sitting in the green room with the other coaches, I knew I wouldn‘t be on the set when the BCS match ups were announced. We were 5th in the nation and I had known for weeks that even if we continued winning on Saturdays, the green room was as close as we would get. It didn‘t bother me. I was focused on getting my team ready to play, in what we hoped, would be the Cotton Bowl. But I suspect it bothered the kids.

The Cotton Bowl was our first New Year‘s Day Bowl Game, and our team and university were excited to play on college football‘s most prestigious day. We went down to Dallas and beat Kansas State 19-15. Now, you‘d think that with four Alliance bowl games, and eight teams playing in them, the number five team in the nation would be one of those eight. But we weren‘t. Then again, the BCS isn‘t set up to take care of teams outside their six conferences. With six automatic qualifiers, seven if Notre Dame finishes in the Top-10, there isn’t room for anyone else.

Mr. Chairman, the set-up that has created the two-tiered system in college football, which benefits teams from six conferences at the expense of the remaining 54 Division I-A schools, could ruin college football if allowed to continue.

College football is expensive to operate and it’s expensive to play in bowl games. It‘s expensive to travel. And it‘s expensive to bring the band. Don‘t get me wrong, it‘s a worthwhile experience for the entire university community, especially in terms of prestige, and recruiting. But it does cost, and having each season conclude with an imbalanced bowl-game selection process between Division I-A football teams both on the field and in terms of the financial disparity associated with the Bowl games is not healthy for the teams and the schools.

Mr. Chairman, my fear is that if the BCS system continues, the gap between elite college football programs, and the rest of Division I-A football will continue to widen, and many universities will be forced to drop their programs altogether.

I‘ve talked today about the national championship game, but another consequence of the BCS set up is the negative ripple effect it causes on the rest of the bowl games. After locking up the top four games, teams from non-BCS schools are shut out from the next level of bowl games. The organizers of those bowl games extend invitations to the second place teams from the six-conference alliance, bumping Conference USA and WAC teams, for example, to less prestigious games hosted in cities that frankly, aren‘t as great destination cities as Miami and New Orleans. This makes it more difficult to encourage the alumni base to travel, making it less financially rewarding.

Mr. Chairman, teams from the six conferences use this stacked-deck to their advantage, namely in recruiting, which some will argue is the most important component of winning teams. At BYU, a traditional recruiting hurdle was encountering PAC-10 coaches who would tell kids if they attended BYU they would never play in the Rose Bowl. While that was difficult enough to contend with, after the formation of the 1996 Bowl Alliance, the recruiting hurdle was set higher. With the BCS in place, PAC-10 coaches could, and would, tell kids not only couldn‘t they play in the Rose Bowl, but they wouldn‘t play in a national championship game, if they went to school in Provo. And they were right.

Mr. Chairman, over the last 20 years, college football teams have 20 fewer scholarships to offer annually. Reducing scholarships has spread the talent pool beyond the traditional football powerhouses, such as Oklahoma, Penn State, and Michigan. With all schools having fewer football scholarships to offer teams such as Colorado State, Northern Illinois, and Louisville are getting higher quality players. This has caused more parity in college football today. Many in the university community agree limiting scholarships has been good for the game. Why then, would the NCAA sanction a post-season system that congregates more power and revenue between fewer teams, while also limiting athletes opportunity. It‘s inconsistent and counter-intuitive. The BCS system is not good for the game, and it‘s not good for higher education. Surely the NCAA and Division I-A football can join the other 23 intercollegiate sports and devise a system that determines a true champion, preserves the integrity of the game, and levels the playing field.

Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, right now, teachers, counselors, and parents across the country are telling young men or women that if they work hard, commit themselves, and never lose sight of goals and dreams, they too can become a United States Senator. Every person in our country has the opportunity to turn dreams into reality. It‘s the reason each of you is here today. The reason I‘m here is that because of this flawed system, talented young athletes are denied an opportunity to make their dreams come true. And I believe it‘s wrong. Mr. Chairman, thank you and the other committee members for your time.

Earlier tonight, TCU and Air Force met in Fort Collins with the Falcons coming away with a hard earned victory over TCU in over-time. For the Non-BCS members, this loss is devastating for college football fans and it reminds me of Fresno State’s fall from grace a couple of seasons ago, immediately following their amazing performance on the turf at the Los Angeles Coliseum when they nearly interrupted USC’s destined journey with Vince Young and the Longhorns of Texas at the infamous Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

Fresno State, after starting 8-0 and nearly upsetting the Trojans, hasn’t been the same since. They lost their last four games that season and struggled to a 4-8 campaign last season. This past Saturday, they came within one-inch - an ill-timed fumble going into the end-zone which would have won the game against the Texas A&M Aggies.

Coupled with TCU’s loss last week against Texas, and now their unfortunate loss tonight with Air Force, I’m wondering if we may see the same results with TCU. After all, with their dreams all but crushed this season, they have zero chance to crack the BCS party - and given Coach Lavell Edwards prophetic statements given in 2003, we can now understand why. The recruiting advantage the Texas schools now hold over TCU - “you will never compete in the BCS if you go to TCU” - holds true - now stronger than ever, and it’s unfortunate because the gap resulting from off-the-field issues widens at the expense of what is actually occurring on it. TCU led Texas 10-0 at half-time before losing their legs in a hot and steamy night in Austin.

If you look at the map above, the majority of the non-BCS schools who are locked out of the BCS equation reside in the west. I remember a conversation I had with Spencer Graham - our West Coast Cross-checker for the Royals Organization - during that same 2003 season when he was covering the states of Georgia, North Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. Due to the fact that he was constantly on the road he was able to listen to XM Radio and catch all of the sports commentary and the coverage for teams in the west is virtually non-existent along the Southeast corridor. It’s almost as if these West coast schools actually reside in Mexico itself.

If you look at the map again, and draw a vertical line extending straight down from the state line on the Eastern edge of Montana and Wyoming, following it due South to the Mexican border, you can clearly see that only 28 of the 120 teams reside in the West, and only 10 of those are BCS members (PAC-10 schools). Incredibly, TCU must play in a conference in which it travels thousands of miles a year (Mountain West), when they could improve their lot by playing local schools within a 300-500 mile radius. The only difference I see between Louisville, Fresno State and TCU is the fact that Louisville has joined a BCS Conference - again an off-the-field issue, because on the field all three programs would be very similar.

Think about the number of athletes in the last couple of years that Fresno and TCU could have landed if they could include BCS clout into their recruiting net? By the way, you can catch the Texas A&M and Fresno game, located on the sidebar within my website and if you watch the game, it is clear that both TCU and Fresno could play in both the PAC-10 and Big-12. The Bulldogs are 0-4 in the last five years against the University of Oregon, but during each venue, I’ve often felt the better team did not win the game. Twice Fresno has been victimized by questionable penalties and twice by their own undoing - turnovers, especially late in the game.

The gap on the field is anorexic if you will, while the financial gap off the field is oceans apart. Both Oregon and Oregon State were woefully pathetic while I was growing up, and in the last 20 years both have made unbelievable strides due to entering the arms race in college football.

I wonder how much influence the BCS has had on this factor as Bulldog Stadium has virtually remained the same since the first time I visited - while playing at Beiden Field when my Beavers played Fresno State back in 1986. While all the attention is alluded to Urben Meyer, Pete Carroll and Les Miles for their coaching exploits, maybe we should recognize that the actual coaching taking place at TCU, BYU and Fresno State may in fact be much better since these teams are competing with the elite and have far less resources to work with.

While much of the nation will be watching these events this weekend…

@ Prediction: Alabama 31 - Arkansas 20

@ Prediction: Florida 27 - Tennessee 24

@ Prediction: Boston College 30 - Georgia Tech 28

@ Prediction: Ohio State 24 - Washington 13

@ Prediction: USC 38 - Nebraska 21

@ Prediction: Florida State 41 - Colorado 14

@ Prediction: Kentucky 49 - Louisville 45

@ Prediction: West Virginia 38 - Maryland 21

-  (Actual Score: West Virginia 31 - Maryland 14)

@ Prediction: Michigan State 31 - PITT 27

@ Prediction: S. Florida 44 - North Carolina 14

Maybe we should extend a little attention to these folks as well!

@ Prediction: TCU 33 - Air Force 17

-  (Actual Score: Air Force 20 - TCU 17)

@ Prediction: S. Miss 24 - ECU 21

@ Prediction: UCLA 51 - Utah 10

@ Prediction: Boise State 28 - Wyoming 27

@ Prediction: Oregon 38 - Fresno State 34