One thing you have to like about the new bowl eligibility proposal introduced earlier this month by the Big 12: There's no ambiguity about it at all. Just raw, naked power being exercised for the good of the exercisers.
In other words, let's just call it the Baylor Bill and get it over with.
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| Dan Beebe's proposal is expected to be discussed during the NCAA convention in January. (US Presswire) |
It is interesting, though probably only coincidental, that 11 of the 12 Big 12 schools enter this weekend with a chance to become bowl-eligible. (Colorado, not so much). Baylor would have to beat Texas A&M and Texas Tech, Texas A&M would have to beat Texas, and Kansas would have to beat either Texas or Missouri.
In practical terms as opposed to wishful thinking, the best the conference could do is nine (Texas isn't losing to either A&M or Kansas). But Beebe's proposal, which is essentially No Child Born of Rich Parents Left Behind, would see to it that in such a development, none of his teams would have to worry about being aced out because Nevada went 9-3.
And why? Because the BCS schools regard the five non-BCS conferences as food-chain material and nothing more. They've always felt that way -- the WAC, Mountain West, Conference USA, Mid-American, Sun Belt and the two service academies are scheduling aids, and this proposal would all but ensure that.
Only in the past, the BCS schools would get kind of embarrassed and lower their heads and say, "That's mean of you to say," half-expecting us to buy it. Beebe has foregone the false guilt and gotten right to the "Screw' em, they're not my problem" part of the equation.
And if reports on the subject are accurate, the other five BCS commissioners think it's a great idea, too. That way, the Florida States and Dukes, the Tennessees and UCLAs, even the Connecticuts and Louisvilles could bounce into a bowl game their records (and in Tennessee's case, its off-field behavior) do not merit.
But what if all these easy games disappear and there aren't enough six-win teams? Then they'll lower the standard to five. What's a mere number, as long as the cartel perpetuates itself?
This is essentially one more step toward forcing the other five conferences to give up and become FCS schools. If your reward for having a football program is losing money, the occasional body-bag game and no bowl appearance if there are enough mediocre big-time programs who qualify, then exactly why would you bother with football at all?
And how is that good for the sport?
See, the thing that keeps us from becoming cannibals is the law of supply and demand. Eventually, the demand becomes greater than the supply, and you end up with nothing. Plus, without those schools to offer up their players' bodies for your free gets-us-bowl-eligible wins, where would you get them?
And finally, many schools who go to mid-level bowls come out of them losing money. The problem here isn't too many bowl-eligible teams, it's too many bowl-eligible bowls, and Beebe fighting for Baylor's right to jump the line at Utah's expense is actually classic short-term thinking -- thinking that he'll be able to forget when he goes to his next job, wherever that is.
There are those who think this would perpetuate the BCS system, but it probably has no practical effect there. All it means is that the bowl system survives intact without all those troublesome Middle Tennessee States and Northern Illinoises to deal with. In other words, this isn't about changing the system for the good in any way. It's only about taking care of Dan Beebe's clients and those of his fellow commissioners.
Which, when you think of it, is the NCAA way -- "A system run by us, for us. Now who needs a $73 T-shirt from the Yankee Bowl?"
Will this pass? Probably, given that one can always change the rules as long as nobody's around to object to them. Will the other five conferences complain? Yes, but they already wasted their go-to-Washington bluff last year with Orrin Hatch's laughable run at the BCS. Will college football fans care? Only the ones whose teams give up bothering to chase a reward that is longer there. Oh, well. Let 'em eat MMA, I guess.
All this so Baylor won't get shut out the next time it gets close to the New Mexico Bowl. Now there's a laudable goal for the industry, and a real feather in Beebe's cap: "I made the world safe from Temple." Quite a legacy indeed.
Ray Ratto is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle.
