Leave it to the arrogance of suits immersed in the Bowl championship Series to throw their immense hubris around in the days leading up to yet another Congressional hearing aimed squarely at eliminating them.
At a time when one would think the under-fire organization would be keeping to itself instead of lobbing public verbal Molotov cocktails, one would be wrong.
In an interview with the Nebraska State Paper, University of Nebraska-Lincoln chancellor and chairman of the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee Harvey Perlman strongly intimated that, if Congress is successful in ridding the nation of the blight the BcS has become, a playoff would not be the end result.
No, Perlman said, it would be back to the pre-BcS days of bowl games and an even more mythical national champion being crowned.
“What I think most people don’t understand is that the alternative to the current system is not a playoff,” Perlman told the paper. “The alternative to the BCS is going back to our traditional relationship with our bowl partners.”
The chairman then went on to assail the mere thought of a playoff system, decrying its very existence as the death knell for bowl games.
“It would diminish the bowl structure and it would reduce the number of opportunities for student-athletes to play in the postseason and that’s not a good thing,” Perlman said. “I don’t think it’s good for college football, I don’t think it’s good for student-athletes and I don’t think it’s good for fans.
“I don’t see fans travelling [sic] around the country three weeks in succession between December and January following their team. So you’re either going to have to play at home sites – which I’m sure everybody will want to play in Nebraska in December and January – or you’re gonna have to travel, which means that bowls will cease being intercollegiate events, but will become corporate events, where everybody in, you name the city, will be there except the fans of the teams.
“It’s hard to see why a playoff is a good idea.”
Of course it’s hard to see why a playoff is a good idea when you have your heads shoved so far… of course you and your ilk don’t see it. Don’t want to see it.
The only thing you “see” is the color green, and until you figure out how to attain more of that certain hue — or until Congress “gently” pushes you — you will continue to pull a Stevie Wonder when it comes to a much-needed playoff system.
Spare me the student-athlete argument, at least until your member institutions rid themselves of the offseason conditioning program, spring practice and summer strength programs.
Spare me the death knell of the bowl system as it’s eminently possible to have both the lower-tier bowls and a playoff system co-exist in a manner beneficial to all involved.
In short, just spare the vast majority of us your weak lines of reasoning. Nobody’s buying it.
Especially key members of Congress, as you all will find out come next Tuesday.
