Senators weigh in
against BCS systemOne senator calls college
football's current Bowl
Championship Series
"un-American"
WASHINGTON >> The Bowl Championship Series shuts out too many schools in its goal of crowning a college football champion and needs to be repaired, senators told representatives of the bowl system yesterday.
"I don't know if you guys know how it looks to fans of teams that aren't part of this system," said Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del. "It looks un-American. It really does. It looks unfair. It looks like a rigged deal."
Hawaii athletic director Herman Frazier was president of the Fiesta Bowl when it hosted the first national championship game under the BCS system in 1999. He said big-money payouts to schools in conferences that play in the major bowls are at stake in addition to access to the national championship.
"I've seen it from the inside," Frazier said. "Since I left Arizona State to Alabama-Birmingham and now to the University of Hawaii, and neither is a member of a BCS conference, I can see why there are issues. It's a significant difference between a $750,000 versus a $13 million (bowl-game) payout."
Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson has proposed that the top team from the non-BCS conferences be allowed in the mix of top games each year.
"The senators' message seems to be they're expecting significant change. They'll be watching carefully and they're expecting change. That's the next step. But the definition of significant change is probably up for debate," Benson said. "I'm optimistic there will be change, fairer access. The next thing to watch will be the presidents' meeting on Nov. 16."
Created in 1998 by the six most powerful college conferences, the BCS guarantees that the champions of those conferences will play in one of the four most lucrative postseason bowl games, leaving only two at-large berths.
Former Brigham Young coach LaVell Edwards said the BCS system also makes it harder for teams outside the alliance to recruit, since there is little chance the players will ever be able to compete for a national championship.
Division I-A football is the only college sport not to have a playoff system.
BYU, which won the national championship in 1984, is the only team other than Notre Dame outside the six BCS conferences to have won a national championship since 1945.
In the 20 years before the BCS started, only one school other than Notre Dame that is not currently in the Big East, Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Southeastern, Big 12 or Pac-10 conferences played in one of the series' four bowls.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a BYU graduate, said the current system raises enough questions of fairness that it is in college football's best interest to fix it instead of forcing Congress to intervene.
NCAA President Myles Brand said he is open to a system that would be more inclusive, but does not believe that there is a need for radical changes or adoption of a playoff system.
Harvey Perlman, chancellor of the University of Nebraska, said the current system is the fairest way to determine a national champion and provides adequate opportunity for schools outside the BCS to play their way into contention.
A team that finishes in the top 12 of the BCS standings is eligible for consideration, and a team in the top six automatically gets a spot.
And Keith Tribble, chairman of the Football Bowl Association and chief executive officer of the Orange Bowl Committee, said the bowl games are attracting more fans, benefiting their host communities and generating more money than ever, paying out $800 million in the last five years.
"For the past 90 years, bowl games have been the heart and soul of college football. It has never been healthier," Tribble said.
Tulane President Scott Cowen disagrees. In 1998, the Green Wave went through the season undefeated, but were shut out of the top-tier games. A year later, the same thing happened to Marshall.
"There is no doubt in my mind that the current system is unjust and unjustifiable," said Cowen, who also heads a coalition of more than 50 schools that are not part of the BCS.
This year, Texas Christian is 8-0 but was only 12th in the latest BCS standings and could be shut out of a lucrative bowl.
The projected revenue for the four 2004 BCS games is $118 million, but only about $6 million will go to the non-BCS schools unless one of them qualifies for a major bowl game.
Cowen's group is scheduled to meet with the presidents of the conferences in the BCS system on Nov. 16 to discuss potential changes to the BCS.
The Associated Press and the Star-Bulletin's Dave Reardon contributed to this report.
