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The BCS' Big Split
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SO#1 Offline
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The BCS' Big Split
By MICHAEL SMITH
Staff writer

The Bowl Championship Series will distribute $142.5 million of revenue from its five bowl games, with 81 percent of it — $115.2 million — going to the big six conferences.

The majority of the rest — $24 million — goes to the coalition conferences: Mountain West, Western Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American and Sun Belt. Notre Dame, as an independent member of the BCS, takes $1.3 million.

Sound a little uneven? Not really, says BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock. Schools from those big six conferences accounted for eight of the 10 teams in the BCS bowls, so those conferences should take roughly 80 percent of the total payout.

“It’s a fair and appropriate distribution of the revenue,” Hancock said.

The distribution is based on a formula created in 2004 by the BCS commissioners and approved by the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee. The revenue distribution has varied little over the four years of the most recent media contract with Fox, which pays an average of $82.5 million annually. The media deal accounts for most of the revenue, while the rest comes from revenue generated by the Sugar, Rose, Fiesta and Orange bowls, and the national championship game.

Starting next year, the payouts will be even more, thanks to a new four-year rights-fee deal with ESPN that will average $125 million a year, all of which is distributed to the schools.

The money is paid annually by an escrow agent, Heartland Bank of Leawood, Kan., and each year’s distribution completely empties the account, Hancock said, meaning all of the revenue is distributed.

But wherever the BCS goes, controversy is sure to follow and it’s no different when it comes to distributing the revenue. Not everyone agrees with the BCS’ method of dispersing funds, mostly those from the coalition conferences.

It’s really a question of value, says WAC Commissioner Karl Benson. When a Utah shocks an Alabama or a Boise State stuns an Oklahoma, doesn’t that demonstrate the value of those teams and conferences to the BCS? Shouldn’t the payout to the conferences like the WAC and the Mountain West that send teams to the BCS look like the payout to the big six conferences?

No, responds Harvey Perlman, chancellor at the University of Nebraska and chairman of the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee. He says there’s a difference between playing well in a game and demonstrating the kind of value that drives long-term media contracts.

“Those teams have certainly performed well, but you’re talking about adding value,” Perlman said. “The real question is whether including those conferences when you negotiate a TV contract adds to the willingness of the network to increase the bid. I don’t think we’ve seen evidence that that’s true.”

The BCS’ tie-ins with its bowls and the traditional strength of the big six conferences are what drive the value of the property, Perlman said, “not an individual team or performance.”

This year’s Fiesta Bowl pitting coalition conference members TCU and Boise State on Fox drew an 8.2 rating, which is less than the 10.4 Ohio State and Texas got in the Fiesta Bowl the previous year. Both games were played on a Monday night. TCU-Boise State generated the second-highest rating of the three BCS bowls on Fox this year, just behind the Sugar (8.5) and well ahead of the Orange (6.8), both of which featured teams from the big six conferences.

The Fiesta’s attendance of 73,227 was higher than the previous two Fiesta Bowls, which again featured teams from the big six conferences.

“When given the opportunity, we’ve shown that these teams deliver,” the WAC’s Benson said. “We believe that teams like Boise State and TCU have become an important piece to the BCS.”

In breaking down the revenue distributed by the BCS, the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference are the big winners. Each league put two teams — Ohio State and Iowa from the Big Ten; Alabama and Florida from the SEC — into BCS bowls, meaning those two football-mad leagues will each receive $22.2 million.

The other leagues that qualify automatically into the BCS — the ACC, Big 12, Big East and Pac-10 — each receive $17.7 million, accounting for $115.2 million to be distributed among the big six conferences’ 65 schools. Conferences typically share their BCS and other bowl revenue evenly, although the Big 12 is an exception and pays more to the bowl teams.

A bonus of $4.5 million is paid for each additional team that makes a BCS bowl, which is why the SEC and Big Ten made more this year.

“When you talk about adding value, from a media standpoint, the Boise States and the Utahs add very little,” said Barry Frank, a media consultant from IMG who worked with the BCS on its new TV deal with ESPN. “They’re not population centers. And speaking from a personal standpoint, in football terms, I can tell you that networks look at them as ‘Johnny-come-latelies’ to the national scene that don’t play the kind of schedules that major conferences play.”

A total of $24 million goes to the five coalition conferences from the BCS this year. There’s a $9.75 million payout that’s automatic each year, another $9.75 million because TCU earned an automatic berth into the BCS based on its ranking, and another $4.5 million for the inclusion of a second team from the coalition, Boise State.

Once the BCS pays the $24 million to the coalition conferences, it washes its hands of the distribution. The breakdown of that money among the five conferences, which account for 50 schools, is determined by a complicated distribution method that the coalition leagues voted on four years ago.

The Mountain West will receive $9.8 million, while the WAC takes $7.8 million and the rest goes to Conference USA ($2.8 million), the MAC ($2.1 million) and the Sun Belt ($1.5 million). TCU is a member of the Mountain West, while Boise State is in the WAC.

As the BCS moves into a new media contract with ESPN, those five coalition conferences will review and possibly change their distribution. What’s not known — and Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson won’t talk about it — is how vigorously the MWC will move for a new distribution system that pays more to the coalition conferences that send teams to a BCS bowl. Thompson wouldn’t comment on his plans.

There’s another scenario in play that could greatly enhance the MWC’s status and perhaps move it onto the same level with the other big six conferences that receive automatic berths into the BCS.

The Mountain West is two years into a four-year evaluation period that measures conference power. It’s based on the strength of the league champion, how many teams are rated in the BCS top 25 and average ranking for the entire conference.

The BCS has not fully divulged what thresholds must be met for the MWC to gain an automatic qualifying berth, which makes the whole process sound eerily like joining a fraternity. But if the MWC could join the big six club, membership would have its privileges and its annual BCS revenue would likely double.

“We look at consistency over time,” Nebraska’s Perlman said. “Looking forward, I don’t know that they change the equation, but certainly their performance over time makes it difficult to not look at them.”

[Image: SBJ201001250101-02.jpg]
01-25-2010 12:47 PM
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quo vadis Offline
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Post: #2
RE: The BCS' Big Split
(01-25-2010 12:47 PM)SO#1 Wrote:  Sound a little uneven? Not really, says BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock. Schools from those big six conferences accounted for eight of the 10 teams in the BCS bowls, so those conferences should take roughly 80 percent of the total payout.

“It’s a fair and appropriate distribution of the revenue,” Hancock said.

LOL ... Hancock fails to note that those "big six" conferences get AUTOMATIC bids, so of COURSE they will always have the lion's share of spots in the BCS bowls. The rules ensure it.

As long as we have the silly BCS system, the fair thing to do would be to get rid of every conference's automatic bid, and make BCS bowl participation team, not conference, based: The top 10 teams in the BCS standings play in the BCS bowls.

Of course, most years, that will still mean that 8 or so of the BCS bowl teams will come from the Big 6 conferences, because the great majority of very good teams are in those conferences, but at least it will be because of some semblance of merit, not because the rules give them (us) a structural advantage.
01-25-2010 04:03 PM
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CatsClaw Offline
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RE: The BCS' Big Split
That comment is so ridiculous. If you get automatic berths of COURSE you would be the main ones in it. I still like this idea, which would make everybody happy. You're never going to have all of the conferences with automatic berths, so people can forget that. But they need a playoff system where the Big Six champions get automatic berths, there are at-large berths, and one or two non-BCS schools are guaranteed berths in the BCS playoffs. For example, the highest rated non-BCS (this year TCU) would be guaranteed a slot in the BCS playoffs. But, because of Boise State's high rankings, they would have been guaranteed the 2nd non-BCS slot in the playoffs, and then work from there. Simple and effective, and everyone would be given a shot at a national title. Being in a BCS conference would still be more beneficial, but non-BCS teams would have a legitimate shot at a national title.
01-25-2010 09:16 PM
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mpurdy22 Offline
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Post: #4
RE: The BCS' Big Split
Barry Frank says Boise and the likes don't bring any value to the media (yet the Fiesta had a 8.5 rating) I am so looking forward to the Indiana vs Washington State Rose Bowl some day.

Barry's comment could be percieved that auto bids shuld go only to about 20 or so schools then and not the Big Six Conferences. How much media dollars do to teams like Baylor, Duke, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Indiana, Northwestern, Kansas, etc.....bring to the table that justifies his argument? Yet those schools get the benefit of the BCS.
01-26-2010 12:10 PM
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Gray Avenger Offline
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RE: The BCS' Big Split
Greed and hypocrisy at its best.
01-26-2010 12:14 PM
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rath v2.0 Online
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RE: The BCS' Big Split
And folks would chew through theor legs to cut free from their current conferences to get a piece of the pie....
01-26-2010 03:27 PM
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bitcruncher Offline
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RE: The BCS' Big Split
That's because there are so many with a vested interest in seeing to it that they get as little pie as possible...
01-26-2010 04:26 PM
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MichaelSavage Offline
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RE: The BCS' Big Split
(01-26-2010 12:10 PM)mpurdy22 Wrote:  Barry Frank says Boise and the likes don't bring any value to the media (yet the Fiesta had a 8.5 rating) I am so looking forward to the Indiana vs Washington State Rose Bowl some day.

Barry's comment could be percieved that auto bids shuld go only to about 20 or so schools then and not the Big Six Conferences. How much media dollars do to teams like Baylor, Duke, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Indiana, Northwestern, Kansas, etc.....bring to the table that justifies his argument? Yet those schools get the benefit of the BCS.

Kansas won the Orange Bowl just two seasons ago. Other than Utah, Boise State and TCU what non-BCS schools have shown that they deserve media dollars?
01-26-2010 07:06 PM
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quo vadis Offline
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RE: The BCS' Big Split
(01-26-2010 07:06 PM)MichaelSavage Wrote:  Other than Utah, Boise State and TCU what non-BCS schools have shown that they deserve media dollars?

Yes, but as others have noted, the bottom teams in all the major conferences do very little either.

To be brutally honest about it, it's the 15-20 biggest names - ND, USC, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, 4-5 SEC teams, Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska - that really drive the media interest.

So let's face it: A lot of our teams get more BCS money than we merit. E.g., my USF gets about the same cut of BCS money that USC gets, and there's no way media/fan interest in college football hinges as much on USF as it does on USC.
(This post was last modified: 01-27-2010 11:06 AM by quo vadis.)
01-26-2010 11:08 PM
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Gray Avenger Offline
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RE: The BCS' Big Split
(01-26-2010 03:27 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  And folks would chew through theor legs to cut free from their current conferences to get a piece of the pie....

I do not for a minute deny that. Hunger degrades.
01-27-2010 10:45 AM
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SO#1 Offline
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Post: #11
RE: The BCS' Big Split
The 6 major conferences gave value to BCS. The non-BCS conferences can get together and form their championship games but no TV will pay anywhere near what TV pay BCS. If BCS never exist would an undefeated team from MWC and WAC play in any major bowl?
01-27-2010 11:22 AM
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MichaelSavage Offline
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RE: The BCS' Big Split
(01-27-2010 11:22 AM)SO#1 Wrote:  The 6 major conferences gave value to BCS. The non-BCS conferences can get together and form their championship games but no TV will pay anywhere near what TV pay BCS. If BCS never exist would an undefeated team from MWC and WAC play in any major bowl?

You are correct. That's why you don't see Boise State complaining about the current state of affairs. Under the old system they'd never come close to the Fiesta Bowl.
01-27-2010 11:28 AM
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quo vadis Offline
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RE: The BCS' Big Split
(01-27-2010 11:22 AM)SO#1 Wrote:  The 6 major conferences gave value to BCS. The non-BCS conferences can get together and form their championship games but no TV will pay anywhere near what TV pay BCS. If BCS never exist would an undefeated team from MWC and WAC play in any major bowl?

The BCS has clearly been better for the smaller conferences than the old pre-BCS bowl system was. Teams like Boise and Utah and TCU almost never played in BCS bowls back then.

And actually, they never played in them under the BCS until 2004. For the first 5 years of the BCS, it was basically the same. But, once Congress got in to the act circa 2004, the BCS modified its rules to make it easier for these teams to get in (and for their conferences to get a cut of the money).

That said, the BCS still obviously sucks, and the deck is still largely stacked against those lesser conferences.
01-27-2010 02:50 PM
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Frog in the Kitchen Sink Offline
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Post: #14
RE: The BCS' Big Split
(01-27-2010 11:22 AM)SO#1 Wrote:  The 6 major conferences gave value to BCS. The non-BCS conferences can get together and form their championship games but no TV will pay anywhere near what TV pay BCS. If BCS never exist would an undefeated team from MWC and WAC play in any major bowl?

As quo vadis said, it's a small cohort of about 15 or so schools that really drive the BCS TV value/ratings. Especially if they play each other.
01-27-2010 03:40 PM
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