The hyperbole of the football preseason has a long tradition. Up through the early 60s the press dominated; the newspaper was the primary source of information and sportswriters, grounded in the prose of Grantland Rice, Jim Murray and other respected voices were the talk of the day.

The East Coast held great power, with the West coast coming on strong in the glory days of SC. One of the things which the 1963 National Championship was to push papers like the Austin A-S to the front as a key source of information about the lauded team of the land. But the elements of football were still their own world, a white world no less, a time of glorious bowl games, with even broadcast football very much a function of the game; that is, the sportscasters were witnesses on the behalf of networks, not the dictators of time and place, down to on-the-field timeouts, where commercials are more important than the game on the field. Football had its time in the broadcast sun and usually one network had a sport score show Saturday evening. Beyond that, you had to go to your Sunday paper to more info.

Obviously, the hypersaturated environment of today is a far, far cry from those days. Now sports are projected around the clock and networks scramble to fill the American airwaves with some sports-relevant information for the ever-addled viewer hungry for one more tidbit. While newspapers still generate hard core copy, the blogs have become the fastest processors for those who must have the very latest the moment it emerges, competing with the rolling scrolls on the bottom of ESPN.

With hyper-saturation came an exponential leap in hyperbole. And at first this was welcome, because there were giant holes in the fabric of sports. Dave Campbell started Texas Football in 1961 and that was the hottest thing you could get your hands on. Suddenly team identities jumped from local to statewide. The dog days of August, the intermidable waiting for the season to start, sudden has a literate culture. Sport Magazine and Sports Illustrated upped the ante on the national scale. Recruiting magazines appeared. Pretty soon there were more magazines than stands to hold them, and soon enough an evolutionary speciation to fill a large niche. And with the new century, the dog days of August for football were merely a figment in our memory.

The key broadcast generators ESPN/ABC now control the BCS contract and - like so many corporate-owned national media - have a vested interest in every word and every football event broadcast. All of it is tailored to their needs. The other broadcasters jump in to stay competitive and insure their place at the trough. Football (and basketball) have become the primary means of their financial and corporate existence. Football season is harvest time.

Hyperbole itself, by definition, is exaggeration.

In show business, hyperbole (known as hype or media hype) is the practice of spending money on public relations in an attempt to bolster public interest in (for example) a movie, television show, or performing artist.[1] Often the entertainment value of the thing being hyped is exaggerated. Consequently, hype (but not traditional, literate hyperbole) has a bad connotation.

Now we've come to a time when the hype has crashed and burned, or as you note, the narrative has been obliterated, which I find as a quite accurate way of stating it, BH. Somebody peed in Bristol's cream.

The BCS works great when there are two and only two top dogs - Texas vs. USC being the epitome of the the BCS concept. When there's more than two, and in particular, three, someone gets screwed. The hype at the front is a set-up for the hype at the end. And when the narrative runs off the track, the broadcast powers can't put their Hogeian wheels back on the track. They have to scramble and start over.

A key part of the hype was basically implied from the start: keep down the talk of a NCAA playoff, the BCS works great and there will be a true MNC. And, just as implicitly, to keep the broadcast giants controlling present BCS in power. The extension of the regular season was to feed money to those who were losing out under the BCS money sharing structure and to obscure the fact that the rich conferences were getting richer and the poor much poorer.

This was the sharks' game, very different from football. In football you have strict rules, a relatively even playing field, sportsmanship for the most part, NCAA controlled refs and many competing teams. In the sharks' game, they set the rules, the playing field is controlled for them, sportsmanship is a figment you only talk about and all real competition is stifled with long-term contracts. Dissent never reaches the level of actual competition. And no one ever investigates the college presidents who quietly sign on to the deal.  

So now you've gone and whacked the rapidly disintegrating facade. Football is life on the field; anything can occur. The NFL dictum actually came alive in a way ESPN/ABC never calculated. The odds were vastly against it on any given Saturday. And while the BCS might work in the end this season, the odds are against it. The BCS is a fabrication within the broadcast system, not an natural outgrowth of the system as a playoff would be.

If you really want to fuck with the broadcasters, not only have a playoff system, open it up where they all can bid on the games every Monday before the games. Get control of your commodity instead of letting others control it.

Sorry to go deep - I stole it from a GD dream the other night - but you picked the right scab to scratch this time.

I'm sorry guys, I really didn't intend to start a playoff debate. Old-time BON'ers know that this can be a lengthy debate, and it should be carefully considered before entered.

But I wasn't really thinking hypotheticals, I was more curious what you guys thought the media would do in attempts to recover a storyline to this actual season.