Quite a Fiesta!

Today I'm going to abandon my traditional "no college football" stance in order to talk about something that's just far too interesting to ignore.  Something that just displays why the BCS is absolute garbage and that anyone who actually thinks it's a good system is an idiot.  As I'm sure you all know by now, the Fiesta Bowl has had some problems.  But don't worry, they've been "punished."  The Fiesta Bowl has to pay a $1 million fine, but gets to stay in the BCS.  Phew!  I was worried there would be one less corrupt bowl game out there.

Before I get into the argument about why this makes the BCS look even worse (which didn't seem possible, but evidently could be accomplished), let's go over some of the background with the Fiesta Bowl's problems.  In a nutshell, former Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker is a shady dude.  The whole reason for the scandal was misappropriation of funds.  Junker and friends spent $1,200 at a strip club, paid for an employee's $13,000 wedding and honeymoon, and threw a $33,000 birthday party for himself--all with the Fiesta Bowl's money.  My favorite part is the $45,000 in reimbursements to employees who made campaign contributions to various political candidates, at Junker's urging.  (That's illegal, by the way.)  Now we know why they call it the "Fiesta" Bowl.

After an "internal investigation" (basically, finding out exactly what went on and announcing it themselves before it came out in Sports Illustrated), the Fiesta Bowl fired Junker and vowed to change.  The BCS said it would have to "seriously consider" if the Fiesta Bowl still belonged as a part of its cartel.  Meanwhile, the Cotton Bowl, which has always had a much higher profile, actually has a history, and is now played in Jerry's World, is licking its lips at the chance to join the BCS (which it should be in anyway). 

Evidently, the changes that were promised were enough to make the BCS bigwigs happy.  The Fiesta Bowl's "punishment" was a slap on the wrist, and it's allowed to stay in the BCS (if it wasn't, I'm sure some kind of lawsuit would've ensued).  I don't think it'll be too much of a problem for a "non-profit" organization that made more than $15 million last year to pay a $1 million fine.  The NCAA still needs to decide if they're going to re-license the bowl, but who are they kidding?  If they don't, only 134 of the 142 Division IA college football teams will go to a bowl game, and we can't have that.

If this isn't further proof that the BCS is a complete sham, I don't know what's going to do it.  Not only is the entire system corrupt, the individual games are corrupt as well!  The powers that B(CS) might want to do themselves a favor and check out what's going on with the Orange, Rose and Sugar Bowls, too.  Everybody really needs to see the light and realize that the BCS sucks.  I can give you a laundry list of examples why, but everyone already knows all of those reasons.  But now you can add even more corruption and total lack of actual management to the list.

Of course, a Utah congressman wants to introduce legislation that looks at the BCS, with the idea to challenge its anti-trust status and force college football to go to a playoff system (you know, like every other sport).  I continually find myself asking the question why Congress worries about this stuff instead of actually running the country, but I digress.  (The fact that gas is $4.25 a gallon doesn't matter to anybody, right?)

Utah is one of the teams that kept getting screwed by the BCS when it was in the Mountain West, which doesn't have an automatic bid.  That's what makes this such a hot-button issue in that state.  However, Utah is leaving the Mountain West for the Pac-10 (a BCS league) in July.  Now that Utah's actually going to be allowed to have a piece of the pie, will he still care?  Or will this be one of those awkward lawsuits where the plaintiff and defendant represent the same side?

Whichever way things come to pass, I hope it leads to the long overdue overhaul of that sham known as the BCS.  March Madness is the greatest event in sports.  College football has a chance to establish its own version of March Madness, which would be much more profitable than the current bowl system.  (What's that I said, BCS athletic directors?  More money?  Cha-ching!)  You could have an actual "National Champion" then.  What a concept!