BCS Mess

No, we're not talking about the formula to determine what two college teams will play for the national championship (there's plenty of that chatter all over the Internet).

Rather, the contract to televise the Bowl Championship Series package is up for bids again and it appears ESPN is making a very serious bid to take away the rights from FOX. If ESPN wins the bid it would not televise any of the games on its Disney-partner ABC. That means for the first time a national championship event will not be available to network viewers.

Given that ESPN currently reaches 96 million of the 112 million U.S. television households, it's not that big a deal. But as Stuart Mandel of Sports Illustrated says, "There remains an undeniable prestige difference between network and cable television." That's why the networks get first pick of the best games.

In addition, it's yet another signal that the future of costly sports programming (we're talking $500 million for four years) may be on niche channels.

Another interesting comment from TV sports consultant Neal Pilson: "Of all the sports that face the recession we're about to experience, college football is probably the most recession-resistant. If you look ahead the next four years, I'm sure ESPN and Fox see college football as being a relatively safe investment." A good point and the ratings for the BCS championship game have been dynamite, except in those games that were blowouts. If ESPN wants the BCS it will also have to take the other games that typically don't fare so well.

Which brings up another point--the BCS has created a situation where only one game counts and the rest are just window dressing (unlike the NFL playoffs, where obviously the outcome is important in terms of advancing to the Super Bowl). Does anyone else miss the old days where sometimes #1 would play #4 in the Cotton Bowl, #2 played #6 in the Orange Bowl and #3 and #5 played in the Rose Bowl? That way, you watched every game because they all mattered for determining the national champion. Just as personal opinion--either go back to the old system or have a playoff. The current BCS format doesn't work for anyone.