CollegeMoney. Equality. Access to the mountaintop.
When one gets right down to it, aren't these the things everyone desires out of life?
Some might not want them in that order. Some might not want them in even amounts. But they're the values we in America have chosen to embrace.
Which brings us to Division I-A football and the attempt to bridge the apparent chasm between the 64 BCS schools and the 53 non-BCS schools.
After trading occasionally heated rhetoric for the last few months, both sides have chosen to negotiate rather than escalate their feud into a civil war of sorts.
Or, worse, have Congress poke around in their business more than it already has.
School presidents representing the 11 Division 1-A conferences - as well as the Rev. Edward Malloy, Notre Dame's president - met with NCAA president Myles Brand for five hours Monday near O'Hare Airport to hash out the sport's key issues:
Money, equality and access to the BCS bowls (read: mountaintop).
The BCS schools believe the non-BCS schools receive more money, equality and access to the big-time bowls than at any point in college football's modern era.
The non-BCS schools believe they deserve more money, more equality and easier access to the big time.
In other words, it's a classically American problem.
And, in classically American fashion, some of the nation's most powerful minds are committed to studying every angle of the problem before deciding what, if anything, can be done to fix it.
The presidents will meet again Nov. 16 in New Orleans for what everyone hopes is another productive dialogue.
Northern Illinois' John G. Peters represented the Mid-American Conference on Monday and was pleased his fellow presidents didn't align themselves along BCS and non-BCS lines.
"Our discussion (Monday) was very positive, very collegial," Peters said. "There was nothing specific discussed in terms of options. We're analyzing and talking about everything. There's no easy solution to this."
Peters, as well as anybody, understands the views on both sides of the fence. Prior to landing at NIU in 2000, Peters spent eight years as Tennessee's provost and chief operating officer. Before that, he spent 20 years at Nebraska.
He recognizes how and why the college football factories deserve a bigger share of the BCS pie. But as the president of a rare non-BCS school on the fringe of the Top 25, he wonders why there must be a ceiling on his team's prospects even before the season starts.
Even if Northern Illinois runs the table and finishes the regular season 13-0 - with wins over Maryland, Alabama and Iowa State - the BCS formula makes it all but impossible for the Huskies to earn a bid to one of the four BCS bowls.
When asked if he favors a playoff, Peters says he hasn't "really thought that through."
However ...
"As far as I'm concerned, everything is on the table. Is (a playoff) realistic given the nature of a football season and the tradition of the bowls, etc.? I think it would be difficult.
"But I think we should ask, 'What does the public want?' I think it could be good for the fans and good for the athletes to have a system that approximates what every other college sport has."
Representatives of the BCS conferences, including Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, said in July that an NFL-style playoff system was a topic few within the BCS were interested in pursuing.
That's in keeping with the BCS' schools' prevailing view that things are good the way they are.
A deeper financial look at the current BCS contract will wait for another column, but Delany's statement to the House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee last week spelled out why the BCS thinks the non-BCS schools already are winners.
• The five non-BCS conferences and eight Division I-AA conferences receive annual monies ($5 million) from the BCS deal that they never used to get.
• With two BCS bowl bids technically available to all Division I-A schools, there's unprecedented access to the Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta bowls.
• While most BCS schools balance their budgets on the profits made from football (and men's basketball), most non-BCS athletic departments survive on subsidies from their schools' educational arms.
The end of Delany's opening testimony to the House explains the core question in the BCS schools' view:
"What is the moral, legal or educational case for shifting tens of millions of dollars from our programs so the non-BCS institutions can reduce their institutional subsidies - causing BCS institutions to begin subsidizing their intercollegiate programs from general fund sources or alternatively balancing their budgets by reducing men's and women's opportunities on our campuses? This makes little or no sense from our perspective."
http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/sports_story.asp?intID=37874206
When one gets right down to it, aren't these the things everyone desires out of life?
Some might not want them in that order. Some might not want them in even amounts. But they're the values we in America have chosen to embrace.
Which brings us to Division I-A football and the attempt to bridge the apparent chasm between the 64 BCS schools and the 53 non-BCS schools.
After trading occasionally heated rhetoric for the last few months, both sides have chosen to negotiate rather than escalate their feud into a civil war of sorts.
Or, worse, have Congress poke around in their business more than it already has.
School presidents representing the 11 Division 1-A conferences - as well as the Rev. Edward Malloy, Notre Dame's president - met with NCAA president Myles Brand for five hours Monday near O'Hare Airport to hash out the sport's key issues:
Money, equality and access to the BCS bowls (read: mountaintop).
The BCS schools believe the non-BCS schools receive more money, equality and access to the big-time bowls than at any point in college football's modern era.
The non-BCS schools believe they deserve more money, more equality and easier access to the big time.
In other words, it's a classically American problem.
And, in classically American fashion, some of the nation's most powerful minds are committed to studying every angle of the problem before deciding what, if anything, can be done to fix it.
The presidents will meet again Nov. 16 in New Orleans for what everyone hopes is another productive dialogue.
Northern Illinois' John G. Peters represented the Mid-American Conference on Monday and was pleased his fellow presidents didn't align themselves along BCS and non-BCS lines.
"Our discussion (Monday) was very positive, very collegial," Peters said. "There was nothing specific discussed in terms of options. We're analyzing and talking about everything. There's no easy solution to this."
Peters, as well as anybody, understands the views on both sides of the fence. Prior to landing at NIU in 2000, Peters spent eight years as Tennessee's provost and chief operating officer. Before that, he spent 20 years at Nebraska.
He recognizes how and why the college football factories deserve a bigger share of the BCS pie. But as the president of a rare non-BCS school on the fringe of the Top 25, he wonders why there must be a ceiling on his team's prospects even before the season starts.
Even if Northern Illinois runs the table and finishes the regular season 13-0 - with wins over Maryland, Alabama and Iowa State - the BCS formula makes it all but impossible for the Huskies to earn a bid to one of the four BCS bowls.
When asked if he favors a playoff, Peters says he hasn't "really thought that through."
However ...
"As far as I'm concerned, everything is on the table. Is (a playoff) realistic given the nature of a football season and the tradition of the bowls, etc.? I think it would be difficult.
"But I think we should ask, 'What does the public want?' I think it could be good for the fans and good for the athletes to have a system that approximates what every other college sport has."
Representatives of the BCS conferences, including Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, said in July that an NFL-style playoff system was a topic few within the BCS were interested in pursuing.
That's in keeping with the BCS' schools' prevailing view that things are good the way they are.
A deeper financial look at the current BCS contract will wait for another column, but Delany's statement to the House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee last week spelled out why the BCS thinks the non-BCS schools already are winners.
• The five non-BCS conferences and eight Division I-AA conferences receive annual monies ($5 million) from the BCS deal that they never used to get.
• With two BCS bowl bids technically available to all Division I-A schools, there's unprecedented access to the Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta bowls.
• While most BCS schools balance their budgets on the profits made from football (and men's basketball), most non-BCS athletic departments survive on subsidies from their schools' educational arms.
The end of Delany's opening testimony to the House explains the core question in the BCS schools' view:
"What is the moral, legal or educational case for shifting tens of millions of dollars from our programs so the non-BCS institutions can reduce their institutional subsidies - causing BCS institutions to begin subsidizing their intercollegiate programs from general fund sources or alternatively balancing their budgets by reducing men's and women's opportunities on our campuses? This makes little or no sense from our perspective."
http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/sports_story.asp?intID=37874206
