Social networking websites feed off of our tireless desire to feel popular and show our “friends” that we are far more popular than we really are. Comments on your “wall,” numbers of “followers” and the validation provided by the “like” button or being re-tweeted are just a few of the various forms of ultra-important currency cherished by our look-at-me society.
The Bowl Championship Series, which has irrationally always had a high opinion of itself, has decided to jump into this self-serving cesspool with both feet. In addition to following the BCS on Twitter, you can now become a “fan” of it on Facebook at “Inside the BCS.”
Within a press release announcing this morning’s debut of the Facebook page, BCS executive director Bill Hancock said: “People love talking about college football because it is so much fun, and there is a constant conversation online. We wanted to join that conversation to give fans more of what they’re looking for: commentary, information, updates, statistics, and a look inside the BCS. The BCS is the best format ever devised to match the nation’s number one and two teams for the national championship while preserving the traditional and popular bowl system.”
For the record, the BCS isn’t the “best format ever devised.” It’s merely the instrument currently used as a substitute “to match the nation’s number one and two teams for the national championship.”
Anyway . . . Hancock, who rose to his current post two days ago, went on to say: “I invite all college football fans to visit the page and become a fan. Like every year, this year has been thrilling and there is a lot to talk about.”
But it looks like not all fans are welcome and some of the talk has been met with censorship.
SI.com’s Andy Staples reports via Twitter that the powers that be at the BCS are “unfanning folks and deleting comments.”
Staples also tweets that the BCS’s Twitter page is under siege and that those comments can’t be zapped.
We’ve all seen this before. Things can really get unpleasant when an unpopular kid tries too hard to be popular.