One of the biggest -- if not the biggest -- proponents of the BcS cartel spoke out Sunday regarding the Department of Justice’s letter to the NCAA asking, in essence, why the hell is there no playoff at the Div. 1-A level, and, in the process, perfectly encapsulated what Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch once described as the arrogance of a current system that’s “biased, secretive and harmful.”
Speaking to USA Today’s Steve Wieberg, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany (pictured) addressed the possibility of DOJ investigating the BcS and potential antitrust violations involving the organization. And, as noted by the paper, Delany told the Justice Department, basically, to bring it on.
“You never should be overconfident on legal matters. Like anything else, once they’re in a courtroom or in front of a jury, you can’t predict outcomes,” Delany told Wieberg. “Having said that, we know what (the college football postseason once) was, and we know what (it is now). And we know there was a thorough vetting of all antitrust issues at the beginning and during (the life of the BCS) because our presidents have always wanted to know the legal basis on which we operate.”
Delany then delivered the perfect exclamation point to his latest display of ungodly arrogance.
“There’s no judge or jury in the world,” Delany said, “that can make you enter into an four-team, eight-team or 16-team playoff.”
On that point, Delany is absolutely correct. The DOJ cannot force Div. 1-A to implement a playoff system. It can, however, expose the BcS for what it is: an exclusionary and unscrupulous cartel run by arrogant egomaniacs hellbent on holding on to what they think is rightfully theirs regardless of what’s best for the game they feign caring so deeply about.
Or what’s best for the 106 -- out of 120 -- Div. 1-A athletic programs awash in red ink.
By all means, Mr. Delany and other BcS cronies, take your ball and go back to the old system of bowling. Leave hundreds of millions of dollars on the table out of spite -- to the detriment of the unfortunate 106 -- and out of some desire to hold on to the power you and your ilk currently possess. Screw what’s best for the game and what most fans want; as long as you’re sitting on the throne, that’s all that matters, right?
Then again, this is the same individual who thought “Legends” and “Leaders” was a swell idea, so the attitude and arrogance shouldn’t be that surprising.