The BCS Problem, it is really the....

[DKW 86 7,440]

http://lsu.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=583899

I told everyone during the summer that THE reason the BCS would bypass an SEC team was that we cant bring big TV ratings to the table. This article basically takes that view. Even Finebaum has come to this conclusion. The BCS should be known now as the TV Market National Championship.

Christopher Wiggins

Special to TigerBait.com

Talk about it in Tiger Penthouse

People around the nation (at least those outside of SEC country) don't seem to really understand the uproar over Gameday being held at the USC-Nebraska game this week.

It's easy to understand, right?

ESPN will not be at Auburn this weekend despite Auburn-LSU clearly being the weekends top game

ESPN and ABC need to promote their own games, like any intelligent business would, and with the PAC 10 being so clearly down this year, the number of marquee match-ups in such a media-friendly market as Southern California (2nd largest in the nation behind New York) will surely be limited. Not that this blow-out in the making is really any kind of marquee match-up, but it sounds better that way than describing it as the 4th or 5th best game that weekend, doesn't it?

Surely there will be great match-ups for SEC and Big 10 schools all throughout the year, so why would they begrudge them this one weekend?

For people in the SEC, this snub is merely a symptom of a much larger and pervasive problem. For better or worse, the people at ESPN are presented as journalists from whom people subconsciously expect a degree of objectivity. They are opinion-makers in a world where things like national titles are awarded by popular vote regardless of who wins them on the field. If ESPN were to present themselves as an entertainment network, and one that will unabashedly promote itself and teams that draw the largest Nielson rating rather than as an objective group of 'experts' given credibility by an air of presumed journalistic integrity, things might be different. Just like CTT said in 2004.

But they don't.

In an article this week by Kirk Herbstreit, the face-man of ESPN's Gameday and college football coverage, he details how deep the PAC 10 is this year (yes, the same PAC 10 that just got dominated by the SEC over the past two weeks), discusses how Ohio State is the team to beat for the national title, points out the many key games on tap this week and even gives Rutgers a shout-out. Under the topic 'Separation Saturday' he points out how significant various match-ups will be to their conference races – but guess

what?

Not a single mention – anywhere in the entire article – of either LSU or Auburn, much less the game that is pitting the two combined highest ranked teams in the country. That's objective journalism?

Here is an example of the problem inherent on the largest possible national stage. In 2003, however history has been rewritten, there was frustration – even anger – that the media didn't get its much-hyped Oklahoma vs. USC match-up for the MNC.

LSU, riding the sole objective criteria used by the BCS, Strength-of-Schedule, was able to crash the party and win the title on the field against the other most qualified foe. No matter – the media awarded USC a share of the title anyway, making the Trojans the first and only team in any sport on any level anywhere in the world to 'win' a championship without even participating in an existing championship game.

Then in the off-season, they quickly did away with the Strength of Schedule component of the BCS formula so that such a travesty would never happen again and attempted to make everyone forget that it had in the first place by regularly referring to USC as 'the' national champions in 2003.

In 2004 an undefeated and superior Auburn team was made to sit at home so that the media could finally get its Oklahoma vs. USC match-up in a laugher of a national title game. In 2005, if not for Katrina, LSU had an excellent chance to go undefeated, but if they (or Auburn or Georgia or Alabama or Florida, etc.) HAD gone undefeated it wouldn't have mattered. There is absolutely no way they would have been allowed to disrupt the foreordained USC vs. Texas big market match-up for the national title, despite the fact that they would have had a better resume than either team (no more SOS, remember?).

This year, if Notre Dame and Ohio State go undefeated, can you envision a single scenario that would allow an SEC team – also undefeated - to get into the national title game?

So why is it that an unbeaten team from the SEC – a conference widely regarded, even begrudgingly by ESPN, as the toughest conference in the nation, a conference whose champion is decided by a title game that regularly pits two top 10 opponents against one another (an extra game, by the way, that schools like Ohio State, Notre Dame and USC don't have to play) – why does it seem to have such a hard time getting included in the mix?

The answer is two-fold and relatively simple. Look at the SEC's population centers, the cities where its teams hail from, cities with names like Fayetteville, Oxford, Starkville, Baton Rouge, Auburn and Tuscaloosa. Hardly the great media markets of Texas and Southern California or the national draw of a school like Notre Dame. And look at who holds the programming contracts. ESPN & ABC has deals with the Big XII (Texas and Oklahoma), the PAC 10 (USC) and the Big 10 (Ohio State) through their parent company Disney while NBC is the exclusive promoter of Notre Dame regardless of who they play.

The SEC is represented by CBS who spends more time and energy on the PGA Tour, NASCAR and the NFL than college football, acquiescing the market to it competitors except for a couple of games on Saturdays.

There are legitimate arguments (believe it or not) on both sides of the fence as to why college football should or should not have a play-off system. Don't look for that debate to be settled any time soon, but until then college football will NEVER be legitimate or fair to the kids who sweat and bleed under its aegis unless an objective method of determining participants in the national championship game can be established.

The power needs to be taken out of the hands of the incredibly (if understandably) biased media, and a line established between objective journalists and self-promoting entertainers. Let the members of the media report the news rather than make the news and let the champions be determined on the field.

As it should be.

[AUHansel 0]

well, we just need to go undefeated again(or some SEC team does). If it happens two times in three years, I promise you something will change. Otherwise, the SEC will SECede from the Union that is college football. The south will rise again!

In all seriousness, I don't think they can let this happen again. If it were, they would have to make radical changes for the next season.

[aumoore 0]

"In all seriousness, I don't think they can let this happen again. If it were, they would have to make radical changes for the next season."

Well I beg to differ as I believe as long as the Sports Media(ESPN) gets what they want in big ratings they could care less about fairness. It is the American way to take advantage of the media for profit. Examples include Katrina hitting a few refineries in LA and gas shot up to $3.00/gallon and Insurance companies raising ratres when medial experts predicted a "more active Hurricane season".

When the media hypes sometning be prepared to take a hit in the pocketbook even if you do not subscribe to their service.

[AFTiger 282]

Then maybe Turbeville was right to self declare a national championship.

[DKW 86 7,440]

This is a story I put up back 2 weeks ago that I guess no one on this board read and understood. One of many I have linked and written.

We do not have the tv market to make it to the BCS. So my asking you about style points was trying to get you guys to finally see what I was trying to tell you back on 9-16. No SEC team is ever going to get into the BCS again. The media just doesnt see us as being able to sell enough cars or insurance for them.

I just NEVER SEE CTT being a media whore.

I think CSS had it perfect: Shoot for the SEC and dont even BOTHER with the rest. All of you guys gettng so fired up about every slight by ESPN are just wasting server space.

I think we need to pull the SEC out of the BCS and go from there. We need a playoff and the only way to get that is to end the in the BCS.

[autigeremt 6,667]

Guys...........

Here's another thought! Our step sister conference (ACC) is in the same boat as we are. While FSU, Miami, and Va. Tech get some pub from the "mousemen", they too would be looking from the outside in.

The Big 10, Big 12, and Pac-10, along with ND have a strong hold on the media. The only legit. way an SEC or ACC team makes it to the Title game is for one of those teams to lose and the conference champion from the SEC or ACC go undefeated.

The ACC and SEC could legit. have a conference champion with both undefeated and still finish outside the BCS championship game with an undefeated Big 10 and undefeated Big 12 or Pac-10 team. It sucks, but that's the way it is at the moment.

The ACC and SEC need to work together for once and put pressure on the NCAA for a playoff system. Just my opinion.

WDE! 5-0

[AUJarhead 70]

Guys...........

Here's another thought! Our step sister conference (ACC) is in the same boat as we are. While FSU, Miami, and Va. Tech get some pub from the "mousemen", they too would be looking from the outside in.

The Big 10, Big 12, and Pac-10, along with ND have a strong hold on the media. The only legit. way an SEC or ACC team makes it to the Title game is for one of those teams to lose and the conference champion from the SEC or ACC go undefeated.

The ACC and SEC could legit. have a conference champion with both undefeated and still finish outside the BCS championship game with an undefeated Big 10 and undefeated Big 12 or Pac-10 team. It sucks, but that's the way it is at the moment.

The ACC and SEC need to work together for once and put pressure on the NCAA for a playoff system. Just my opinion.

WDE! 5-0

Sorry, but I consider Miami and FSU to be the same class of media darlings that USC, Ohio State, Michigan, Texas and OU are in.

[aukooze91 11]

This is a story I put up back 2 weeks ago that I guess no one on this board read and understood. One of many I have linked and written.

We do not have the tv market to make it to the BCS. So my asking you about style points was trying to get you guys to finally see what I was trying to tell you back on 9-16. No SEC team is ever going to get into the BCS again. The media just doesnt see us as being able to sell enough cars or insurance for them. (I agree w/ you here DKW 86, especially when you see a damn AllState Promo going up the net for fg's and xp's in the ABC games! I don't even think we have ever used netting out our games.)

I just NEVER SEE CTT being a media whore.

I think CSS had it perfect: Shoot for the SEC and dont even BOTHER with the rest. All of you guys gettng so fired up about every slight by ESPN are just wasting server space.

I think we need to pull the SEC out of the BCS and go from there. We need a playoff and the only way to get that is to end the in the BCS. (I agree. I understand Mr Slive, the SEC Commissioner, is trying to set up a TV market, TV station, and TV channel just for SEC teams in all sports, year 'round. I read that somewhere, I believe on the SEC website. Also, I think someone else may have posted it some time before when we all were discussing a similar issue before the season started.)

-Here is my suggestion. We break away from the BCS and possibly the NCAA. We start a new conference and collegiate association, located in the South, with about 50 participants. Set up our own TV deals across the U.S. on both cable and satellite (like Ted Turner did for the Braves in the '70s), and our own playoff system. This will ultimately take away from the BCS (BS) TV ratings on a national level over time. Cater to the sportsfan masses! Slowly but surely other teams located in other parts of the country will want to come on board!

[MrMoJo 0]

Teach a BCS voter to drive...

Point his car North....

[DKW 86 7,440]

Rank - Population by State

1. California, Home of USC – 36.1MM

2. Texas, Home of UT - 22.9MM

4. Florida, Home of UF - 17.8MM

7. Ohio, Home of OSU – 11.5MM

8. Michigan, Home of UM – 10.1MM

23. Alabama, Home of Auburn University – 4.6MM

26. Kentucky, Home of Louisville – 4.1MM

37. West Virginia, Home of WVU – 1.8MM