Distractions From Property Law: BCS Banter

All this does is confirm the fact that we will never see any type of playoff in college football. (As if there was much of a chance in the first place.)

Despite living in an age where propaganda is the prime substance of televised broadcast and some print journalism, despites the built-in advantages of the BCS broadcasters to push their point of view relentlessly, it is telling that public opinion is contra.

WIth a decade to mull over the results, the contradictions, the distortions of football space, the advantages and disadvantages of this closed system, which is indeed elitist and pumps money to the top tier, and the general understanding of a serious playoff (it ain’t rocket science), perhaps the public does have a clear idea of what they want – and how they want it.

I find this is very little about football and very much about money and control. Football is just the commodity at the end of the process. And when you bring in property, this is about ownership of a process, an abdicated ownership with title transfered as far as I see it.

The powers pushing this want every game to be great. But that ain’t life and that’s not how it ever ends up. That is the golden totem they’re selling their viewing public. Like most every other major corporation, they are trying to reduce their liabilities (bad games) and pump their big producers (title game, top tilts).

While there is some logic to a limited set of outcomes in the past when the media system was not set up for multi-broadcasts, there is no excuse now. BCS and cronies want the cream. Fuck the rest, send them down to the other 20 or so bowls in smaller venues and lesser broadcasters, let them do the bad games. However, the quality of those games scale out about the same: some great, some good, some fair, some just butt-ugly. Just like the BCS, despite the chiseling to garner what should be the key games.

The nature of the game levels the field.

So, in a sense the BCS cronies are implicitly telling us they take all the risks and are due the big rewards. But actually, they just take the choice out of our hands via the NCAA because they want as sure a thing as possible – the institutional imperative – while we sit here knowning nothing is sure and the risks (of bad games) is just as possible in a larger playoff as they are in the BCS. And now they’ve locked it up to 2014 – six frickin’ years – and basically we’re told to fuck off and forget it or at least find some rationalization we can chew on for six years so we’ll keep watching. There is no actual discussion; there is no interactivity, no feedback, no role whatsoever in the decision-making. Now it’s just theater, from Potemkin to Kabuki, and nobody but nobody has a fucking thing to say that will change anything, except the deck chairs, of course.

I think the contracting parties should be sued by some team(s), if not states for state-supported schools, under the 14th amendment equal protection clause that there is not a fair and equitable chance at the national championship for all members of Div. 1 football based on the NCAA’s own developed and successful system for determining national championships. The NCAA is guilty of abdicating responsibility their own responsibility, and has made a deal financially detrimental in both the short and long term to some member schools, with malice aforethought.

Otherwise Div. 1 should be divided with top tier BCS conferences in one division and all the rest of the teams in another. It is a farce as it is and a financial detriment to the lower tier schools because they don’t have an equitable chance in hell of ever making the BCS.

Hell. Last year’s mess has been used as a big debating point on behalf of those looking for the plus one. Most point at USC and UGA as deserving a chance at the title being a huge point FOR the plus one format.

When they both would have been left out even with the plus one last year, how does this offer anything mildly considered valid?

Going beyond the plus one is too much. I understand the other divisions have a playoff system just fine. I also understand that a large part of what keeps Div 1 competetive is funding. Last year was a year of quite a few upsets. How many of those colleges would be able to fund programs capable of pulling upsets if they lost not only the BCS funding, but the bowl funding as well? Keep in mind that the typical argument for a full blown playoff would be using the bowls that already exist for the playoff games in an attempt to keep them marketable. Honestly, with a playoff system, who would care for the remaining bowls? You’d pretty much have to remove out of conference play in order to faciliate a 16 game playoff system. I’d much rather have the out of conference games than playoffs.

Fans cry out for the playoff system claiming the BCS is out of touch with what their fans want. The BCS just remembers a quote we’re all told when we’re little. “Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.”

Fans need to think through the cons of the playoffs rather than ignoring them for the minimal gains. What we have now isn’t bad. Playoffs won’t make things better longterm.