The BCS Wants To Social Network With You
In the past two weeks, the Bowl Championship Series has made a string of moves that are about as strange as that time your weird uncle Harold signed up for a MySpace account.
Last week, the BCS promoted Bill Hancock to the role of BCS executive director. His job is to be the face of college football’s much-maligned postseason system. And he’ll be the guy doing all those media interviews every time there’s a BCS controversy. He’ll also have to march in front of Congress every time the BCS gets called into a congressional panel.
Shortly after Hancock was promoted, he set up social networking sites for the BCS on Twitter and Facebook so fans can have access to the system. So far, this has made for some great entertainment, as football fans around the nation can direct their hate to the very source of so much postseason despair. Just take a look at what people are saying.
Finally, on Monday it was revealed that the BCS hired Ari Fleischer as a PR consultant to help pump even more sunshine on the system. Without getting all political here (we are a sports blog), it is interesting that the BCS went with a former political flack to help them absorb the hate. As Fleischer’s own website says: “No one faces tougher coverage than sports figures – except for Presidents and top government officials.”
Now, Fleischer wasn’t talking about college football postseason structures on his website, but you have to wonder if any U.S. president has ever faced such universal disdain as the BCS. It’d be great to see the Harris poll conduct an approval rating on that system. Even in the best of times, it’d be hard to imagine more than 15 percent of college football fans are in favor of it.
All of these moves come at an interesting time, because can you think of a year that’s had less BCS controversy? Since about early October, it’s been the Florida-Alabama winner versus Texas in the national championship game. So long as those teams win out, the deck is stacked in their favor.
Then again, just for giggles let’s look at what would happen if Texas lost. TCU and Cincinnati would both then be neck and neck to face the Florida-Alabama winner. Meanwhile, Boise State could also make a claim for a title shot after winning out for the second straight year.
Naturally, that sort of scenario could be solved with a playoff structure, but that must be why the BCS is taking such defensive measures. Since there’s little controversy now, maybe the BCS is just ramping up for years when it won’t be so cut and dry.
But we’re more interested in how Hancock’s role will evolve. Beyond being a stooge for the BCS, will he one day begin to act like the commissioners in the pro leagues? David Stern and Bud Selig tend to show their faces for the championship games, but they also are quick to speak out over big controversies as well. It’ll be interesting to see how visible Hancock makes his role. For some reason, we picture him sitting in various luxury boxes at big BCS games, laughing with his cronies about the continued lack of a playoff system.
Then again, maybe it’d be best if Hancock stayed behind the scenes. Judging how the BCS Twitter page is being received, we probably don’t need a walking, talking BCS promoter right now.
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