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Written by Jim Nakadate
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Tuesday, 15 January 2008 |
 SHOW US THE MONEY! After 32 bowl games in the college football post-season, the 64 teams from 11 conferences (plus independent Navy) got to split up about $201,575,000. But not equally. The six so-called BCS conferences received over $180 million (see graph below). The WAC, Conference USA, Mountain West, Mid-American and Sun Belt conferences and Navy got the other 10%. With the majority of the bowl games played east of the Rockies, including several that pay each team over $2 million, it’s easy to see where all the big money is going. The SEC, Big 10, Big 12 and ACC routinely place eight or nine teams in bowl games and reap the rewards accordingly, while the lowly Pac-10 and Big East (with only five or six representatives) get the short end.  This is exacerbated by the fact that the major corporate sponsors are locked into contracts with certain conferences; they are funneling their money into those conferences because they want to. Those college football fans clamoring for some sort of playoff system to decide the national champion had better consider reality. There are a whole lot of corporations, bowl committee members, chambers of commerce and athletic departments who like things just the way they are. A structured playoff would lessen the importance (and threaten cash flow) for several of the existing bowl games, by taking certain teams out of the mix and forcing changes in scheduling dates. Does anyone think the folks connected with the Capital One or Gator Bowls are going to re-schedule their games from January 1 (a holiday) to mid-December? And they ain’t gonna cotton to somebody telling them which teams are gonna play in their cities. The Pac-10 would benefit from corporate sponsorship of another bowl game in Los Angeles (to replace the less attractive Sun Bowl), where more fans would attend. Except for a BCS game, it’s asking too much of fans of schools in Oregon or Washington to travel east of Las Vegas in winter time for a second-tier bowl game.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 15 January 2008 )
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