Behind College Football’s Bowl Championship Series
The authors, who are reporters for Yahoo!, examined public records and interviewed officials representing universities, conferences and bowl games. They say they found a corrupt system that’s inherently unfair to smaller programs, robs fans of seeing fair competition and often leaves taxpayers in the lurch. (At least one member of Congress has asked for a Justice Department investigation into whether the BCS violates antitrust laws.)
The BCS is technically run by the commissioners of college football’s 11 conferences and the athletic director of Notre Dame, but the authors say it is controlled by the heads of the six largest conferences (Big Ten, Big East, ACC, SEC, Big 12 and Pac-10) and a handful of bowl directors. It’s that elite group, they contend, that wields the power and divvies up revenue (from TV contracts, ticket sales and sponsorships), while using the system to keep smaller, non-BCS schools like Utah and Boise State out of the championship game.
ABCNews.Go.com
10/18/10
