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Letter to the editor

Money only way to get BCS to change system

By HUBERT MIZELL
Published December 5, 2004

E-mail from Brad DeLuca of Dade City asks, "What's up with you, Mizell? In past football seasons, I cheered when you swung bare knuckles at the BCS.

"You smacked self-serving conference commissioners and malfunctioning college presidents for trumping up non-valid reasons to plump their egos while robbing America of what should be our greatest sports event.

"Where has Hubert's outrage gone? Don't surrender as the BCS blunders again with its rotten scheme that this time will stiff Auburn, Utah, Louisville and others."

Okay, I'm stirred, Brad.

BCS deserves to die more than ever. As always, there is just one way to overcome this maddening mafia. TV money is the key. First whiff of hope: ABC admits losing interest.

Wouldn't it be dreamy if CBS, ESPN, Fox, NBC and Turner conspired to shift into backup gear? Shutting off ludicrous BCS funding for low-interest bowls now packaged with a single serving of dessert that pairs alleged Nos.1 and 2.

I'll rant again ... force the scoundrels to create a 16-team playoff, triggering a roaring mandate from Blacksburg to Boise. One of the phony BCS claims is that old-line bowls would be harmed. Stew that one in a Crock-Pot.

Most bowls would be helped dramatically. There would be 15 high-meaning, hot-for-TV offerings, using traditional venues for playoff games over five weekends.

If the BCS were purged, let's imagine ... for the first round, there could be two weekends offering four games apiece. One played Friday night, two Saturday afternoon and another that evening.

I'll use national polls as the basis for seeding. Visualize this ... the first weekend, playoffs could pair (2) Oklahoma against (15) Tennessee (San Antonio) ... (4) California against (14) Michigan (San Francisco) ... (6) Texas against (10) Boise State (Nashville) ... (8) Georgia against (9) Virginia Tech (Houston).

Fab four.

Our playoffs would just be revving. In the second weekend, we'd have ... (1) Southern Cal against (16) Florida State (Dallas) ... (3) Auburn against (13) LSU (Memphis) ... (5) Utah against (12) Iowa (San Diego) ... (7) Louisville against (11) Miami (Tampa).

You like it? Eight killer games already and excitement still rising. Settling everything on the field. Those eight survivors would move to quarterfinal matchups in Atlanta, Jacksonville, El Paso and Tempe.

Week 4 would stock networks with semifinal bouts in Miami and New Orleans. Winners would become week 5 finalists in a legitimate, fair, colossal national championship game at Pasadena.

BCS blowhards don't want this. They want control. Power. BCS mafia cares not about you and me. Suppose the architects of college basketball's March Madness had been similarly numb to the highest needs of their sport?

TV dollars ... no other possible trigger.

FIGHTING WORDS: Forty-seven readers e-mailed me regarding last weekend's column on the evaporating of sportsmanship. "It's even worse than you say," wrote Jack I. Johnson of Tampa. "Crude displays of boorish behavior and ignorance are everywhere. It is ruining our quality of life."

Alice E. Williamson of Homosassa said, "The big problem is lack of respect. Parents are not teaching this now. Grown men act like spoiled-rotten children."

Dick Roach of Louisville, Ky., said, "What a wonder article. You put it straight, and I share your feelings. I have sent it to my children and grandkids."

Chip Hanna of Tierra Verde said, "It looks cheap; like professional wrestling. Baseball players do seem to govern themselves. TV ratings are way up for MLB. You don't suppose ... because people want to see professional athletes performing with more dignity and class than they do in other sports?"

Marliyn Bartram of Palm Harbor offered, "I am in the coveted 25-49 age demographic but I personally boycott products advertised in connection with sports and using overbearing, vulgar and insensitive antics. It can take some digging, but I manage to find beer that is not involved with these garbage-ridden sales pitches."

E-mails against my stance: 0.

Hubert Mizell can be contacted at mizell3@cox.net

[Last modified December 5, 2004, 00:06:18]