BCS cartel continues to spread fertilizer
The news release came across at 10:10 a.m. Friday.
"THE GREATEST PLAYOFF system in all of sports is working again," it began.
Yep, the Bowl Championship Series folks are once more spewing propaganda.
OK, this time, they were forwarding a column from the Columbia, S.C., newspaper -- the columnist just happens to be this Leftovers writer's former boss. But the BCS honchos don't forward or re-tweet negative items, only ones that back up the garbage that the cartel is good for college football.
The fact is this season shows more than ever how the BCS system is not working.
Think about it.
The season, though only half complete, is essentially over for Oklahoma and Wisconsin after both lost last Saturday and dropped from the top five. For those teams, this season was all about getting the chance to play for the national championship -- not even conference titles or bowl bids.
So when those who support the BCS say a playoff system would diminish the regular season, don't listen. The season is greatly diminished every time a top school loses before December because, unless it plays in the Southeastern Conference, it's done.
Under a playoff system, Oklahoma and Wisconsin would still have a chance to play for the national championship and the regular season would still hold meaning for those schools and their fans. And, by extension, the rest of the nation.
And if a fair playoff system existed in which schools such as Boise State had a legitimate chance to make the field, there wouldn't be this insane rush to super conferences that could just about destroy the future of a great sport.
■ WIDENING THE DIVIDE -- Schools that play in BCS conferences won't have much problem paying up to an extra $2,000 per scholarship, now that the NCAA has decided to extend the maximum amount.
But what about UNLV, whose athletic director, Jim Livengood, already spends each morning looking between his office couch cushions for spare change to keep the budget in the black? He'll have to find that money, because if UNLV does not offer the stipend, it will become a tremendous recruiting disadvantage.
How much more Livengood must raise is uncertain. Maybe $250,000, probably more.
"It's a big number," he said. "We don't have all the details."
Livengood, though, said he favored the increased limit because "it helps student-athletes," even if that means his job just got a lot tougher.
■ LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON -- Fox Sports' talented play-by-play announcer Joe Buck offered a touching tribute Thursday night to his late father, Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Buck.
When David Freese homered in the bottom of the 11th inning to give the St. Louis Cardinals a 10-9 victory and force Friday's Game 7 against the Texas Rangers, Joe Buck told the national TV audience, "We will see you tomorrow night."
It was a repeat of the memorable line uttered by Jack Buck in the 11th inning of another World Series Game 6, when the Minnesota Twins' Kirby Puckett homered to force a seventh game in 1991.
Jack's son did him proud.
COMPILED BY MARK ANDERSON
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
