Surprising to nobody, the BCS and big-time conferences have once again decided that they like their fat paydays better than they like the indentured servants on whose backs they're getting rich.

At a recent meeting, BCS officials shot down a "plus-one" proposal from SEC Commish Mike Slive. Apparently, the BCS folks "like where [they] are". They like it because the major conferences are making money hand-over-fist, and any move toward a play-off would mean a more even distribution of money.

The playoffs versus bowls argument has been done to death, and despite the overwhelming logic and reason behind moving to a playoff, religion is religion, and the fans of the bowl system continue to insist that the world is flat. When you dispense with all of the strawman arguments, though, what you're left with is a simple fact: the national champion is determined by journalists, coaches' assistants, and computers.


The BCS had a chance to take a step towards fairness to the student athletes who are powering a multi-billion dollar industry (for mere peanuts, comparatively). Instead, they chose their pocketbooks.
On September 4, 2004, the Auburn Tigers took the field to face Louisiana Monroe. They won that game 31-0 and, despite a grueling conference schedule, won every single time they stepped on the field after that, right up to (and including) a 16-13 win over #10 Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. The Auburn players did everything they could do. They beat all comers. In any other sport, if a team wins all of their games, at the end of the season they're crowned champions.

Auburn had to settle for the "Peoples National Championship", a viewers choice award dreamed up by an Auburn fan from Opelika, Alabama, and there's absolutely nothing just about that. Would the Tigers have won a plus-one game? Would they have won a four or eight-team playoff? There's no way to know, but what we do know for sure is that those players were never given the chance. Some voters and some computers decided that they weren't good enough.

To look at a group of student athletes and tell them "I'm sorry, I know you won all of your games, but you just didn't win pretty enough for the media... but enjoy your bachelors degree!", it's just not right. But to the major conferences, that's a small price to pay for the giant checks that come rolling in during Bowl Season.

Unfortunately, after the BCS's recent decision (made from a resort in Hollywood) the end is nowhere in sight.