B$C$: Rick Reilly may be about to be fired from ESPN after this one...

Rather than go into a long diatribe as to why Boise State is getting screwed up the ass without lube, I will let ESPN's Rick Reilly do it for me. Quoted material is from his new article: Boise State Broncos can't buck this trend.

(Again, material is quoted for purposes of commentary and criticism.)

"So that's it, then. It's done. The fix is arranged. It's Game Over and everybody knows the score. The BCS computers TKO Boise State. Why keep punching when it's not a fair fight?"

Correct, and your network is largely to blame. Not only does ESPN have 500,000,000 reasons to have an interest in only the Marquee Value teams play in the BC$ National Championship Game, but they have another interest in keeping this enterprise alive...

ESPN OWNS AND OPERATES quite a few of the bowls in the archaic, obsolete, and, frankly, stupid bowl system.

According to their corporate website, ESPN Bowls (through ESPN Regional Television/ESPN Plus) owns:

1. The New Mexico Bowl
2. The Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl St. Petersburgh
3. The MAACO Bowl in Las Vegas
4. The Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
5. The Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl
6. The Texas Bowl
7. The Birmingham Bowl
   

That is SEVEN of the 34 bowls, and they just paid $500,000,000 for the four-year rights to the five BCS games.

Does ANYONE honestly believe they want to blow up that kind of investment? Hence, we get this kind of a situation...

"Auburn and Oregon are No. 1 and No. 2 in the country according to Sunday's latest, most fraudulent compilation yet from the BCS rankings. If those two schools win the rest of their games, they'll play in the BCS Championship Game."

Not so fast, Rick. I know what you are trying to say and imply, but I'm not so sure 12-0 is going to be enough (because of these very same computers!) to get Oregon into the BC$ Championship Game.

I think, even with one loss, a potential Big XII Championship Game between Oklahoma and Nebraska would send it's winner to the title game over Boise, TCU, Michigan State, AND Oregon -- even if all four were undefeated.

Why? Because of a lot of what you say in this article.

"It's the biggest rip-off since the Nigerian prince scam. It makes you wonder why you watch college football at all. What Boise State is being asked to do isn't doable. It's like trying to win a Cuban election. Or break into the Genovese family."

I've made it clear -- I almost don't watch college football at all, and, what I do watch, I watch to see if Boise is actually finally going to get their rightful title shot or get screwed again.

I don't think we need to know who is really deciding the national title this year. It's six computer experts, one of which stated openly that he would be tempted by a $1,000,000 bribe.

Rick, your employer paid half-a-billion dollars for the TV rights to the BCS. Do you honestly believe another couple million to the right people to ensure "their matchups" is that out of line?

The day Boise State gets to play for the title, there is no further need for the BCS. The BCS was constructed to prevent another BYU-type title.

"The Broncos are 6-0. They've won 20 straight games, the longest streak in the country. They've beaten two BCS automatic qualifiers -- 6th-ranked Virginia Tech and 24th-ranked Oregon State. Doesn't matter. BSU could whip the 103rd Infantry and it wouldn't get a sniff. The computers are in charge. The pod bay doors won't open."

Bingo. Your employer stated openly, the week before the first rankings, that Boise State would not only be in the title game as of the end of week 6, but would be the #1 team in the country by the BCS standings. (A result a little sleuthing on the Net and a good spreadsheet confirm.)

Do you honestly believe, people, that the money behind college football (more and more of it from ESPN) would allow this to happen? Face it: The level of play in the Six AQ BCS conferences has gone through the floor.

So much so, that, when you examine this:

"Amazing, isn't it? NCAA Division I football is the only sport in the world where continued, uninterrupted, hats-in-the-air winning doesn't mean you keep progressing. For Boise State, it gets you a squirt of vinegar in the eye. It's a three-card Monty game and all they get is two cards. OK, here it comes. Say it: Boise State doesn't play anybody."

If you take a look at the last seven BC$ National Title Games, they are consisting of:

• LSU, Alabama, and Florida from the SEC
• Texas and Oklahoma from the Big XII (South)
• Ohio State
• and the two illegal U$C teams.

There's your BC$. And if you don't think "arrangements" are made to keep it that way, examine what the computers have done the last two weeks.

"Boise State plays -- and beats -- whoever they throw at it. It thumped San Jose State 48-0. Wisconsin, which beat No. 1 Ohio State and No. 15 Iowa, only beat SJSU by 13, at home!

Boise State smashed Wyoming 51-6. Wyoming nearly beat Air Force and Air Force nearly beat Oklahoma. You're telling me Boise State couldn't beat OU? Oh, wait. It already did.

Boise State whipped Virginia Tech on the road. VT is undefeated in the ACC. Are you telling me Boise State wouldn't be carving up the ACC?"

None of those teams are relevant -- Wyoming isn't, the ACC isn't, the Big Ten minus Ohio State isn't (one of the reasons even an undefeated Michigan State is going to get rigged and screwed), and the fact is that, to the BC$ (and, dare I say, the Worldwide Leader), there are only about 7 or so teams who matter. You MIGHT be able to add Nebraska to the equation this year, but, end of the day, not even some of the undefeated-AQ teams would get in before a prospective one-loss SEC Champion Alabama (or probably Auburn, unless it lost to Alabama), or a prospective one-loss Big XII Champion between Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Why? Follow the freaking money. The computers are responding to the money which is dependent on them. Boise and TCU in the title mix (worse yet, even them against each other in the title game!!) would destroy the BC$ and the entire bowl system, who is only meant to enrich middling schools and the likes of the Worldwide Leader.

""If they played anybody in the country," said Oregon's offensive coordinator, Mark Helfrich, who used to coach at Boise State, "they could give them a game. One time? Against anybody? Absolutely, they'd give them a serious game."

"I think they'd be tough to beat," said Auburn's offensive line coach, Jeff Grimes, who also used to coach at Boise State. "They've proven that. They could beat anybody on any given Saturday. Could they win every Saturday in the SEC? No. But who can?""

If you gave me a fairly officiated game, Boise could beat any team in the country. (Hell, you even have one of the coaches from the BCS #1 team in the country, Auburn, saying the same damned thing!)

But why does this not matter? $500,000,000 for the BC$ and how much more for the seven other bowls they own?

Da-da-da. Da-da-da.

"How would Grimes feel if he were the Boise State coach, getting more shaft than Chilean miners?

"I think I'd say, 'Bout time for a playoff, isn't it?'" Grimes said.

Exactly.

Of course, Petersen, who's just so annoyingly classy, won't say boo. "Coach Petersen likes to stay away from the topic," said a Boise State spokesman. "If he starts worrying about the polls and all the noise out there about it, it will just be a distraction to the team.""

You won't say it, but I want names on that one, so I can tell them the Captain Obvious Comment:

"Too late, it already IS a distraction to the team!"

That's exactly what people would say and should say. And anyone who doesn't realize what kind of financial boon it would be for all 120 FBS schools (especially the 106 such schools who are losing money on their athletic programs) to have such a playoff is being silly.

But waaaait... That's the problem. The people behind the BC$ do not WANT all 120 schools and their 11 conferences to benefit.

Why? A playoff would lose money, so they claim, for the elite schools.

No, it'd lose money for ESPN, who would lose seven bowls they already freaking own and operate.

They'd lose that $500,000,000 4-year contract they have for the BC$.

This is why you won't see a Winter Madness, even though it would be HUGE.

"No, what Petersen needs to do is get noisy in Boise! He needs to be calling up reporters and seething about the short in the BCS mainframes. He should be asking anybody, "How come your schizoid computers keep vaulting unworthy teams over us to No. 1? Two weeks ago it was Ohio State. They lost. Last week, it was Oklahoma. They lost. This week, it's Auburn. Who's the computer going to leapfrog us with next? Swarthmore?""

TCU. Next week. Bank on it.

"Boise State's athletes and coaches deserve better than this dog's breakfast. Fix the crappy data going into the computers. Get rid of the SEC bias. Update the strength-of-schedule logarithms. This is 2010, not 1960. The difference between the old-school schools and the new-school schools is a butterfly's burp."

I'd say the "new-school schools" are better. The problem is that we are operating under a system to benefit the old-schoolers.

Boise State would probably already have a national title under the old system, IMHO. Might be a split title from the year they beat Oklahoma, but it'd be a title.

They won't get one now. There's too much money in keeping them out.

"Sports isn't fun when you take the anything-can-happen out of it and that's exactly what the computers have done.

Better yet, get us a damn playoff."

As Brian Tuohy says: There are no coincidences.

If you keep the "anything-can-happen" in "it", you get results which might endanger the very financial setup which the BC$ (and it's main corporate partners, including (and especially!) your employer) want to maintain.

And that requires keeping the relevant number of elite schools to an abject minimum.

Da-da-da. Da-da-da. Watch your back, Rick. This one sounds like biting the hand which feeds.

It's right, obviously.... But it still bites the hand which feeds, and the man who signs your paychecks.