by Travis Montera

Created on: December 04, 2008

Fans should not and would not boycott college football just because of the BCS system. This in turn would mean boycotting their favorite college program and their love of the game. Not to mention you could never get enough boycotting individuals to actually make a difference. However, there are some that could boycott that could make that difference.

The BCS thrives on television and corporate sponsorships. These are the ones who should be boycotting. The boycotting from major television companies and corporations could bring the BCS to it's knees. You may be asking how? Very Simple.

Corporate sponsors pay millions and some cases in the billions to have their name attached to the title of the games. Examples would be FedEx Orange Bowl/Nokia Sugar Bowl/Tostitos Fiesta Bowl etc.. Back in the day this was not the case. The bowl games just carried the bowl game name ie: Orange Bowl/Cotton Bowl/Peach Bowl etc. The corporate name branding was another great idea to bring more money to college football. This idea of having corporate name attachment came before the BCS was born, but when the BCS arrived the price tags got much more hefty to have your corporation name attached. Even with this incredible money making plot there was no talk of determining a clear cut National Champion, but they did think of more ways to make more money. TELEVISION!

The BCS bowl games are all usually bid on by the major television stations. Of course highest bidder wins the right to broadcast the game or games. The television stations then sell advertising space to companies wanting to reach a large audience and they sell it at a very very high price. Many times the corporations who could not afford to have their name attached to a bowl game find it cheaper to just advertise during the game. With all this money everybody gets a cut from the CEO's to the School's playing in the games. We still haven't even talked about tickets to the game and souvenirs, but I am sure you get the idea.

If the corporations and television stations were to refuse attaching their name to the games and broadcasting the games until a fair playoff format was implemented, I guarantee you it would take the BCS executives no longer than a week to put something together. Look at the auto executives for example. When congress threatened to not give them any relief unless they established an actual plan of how the money would benefit them. It took them about a week and a half to put that together. Why? Because they were afraid to lose that funding. The same thing would happen with the BCS executives. They would be so afraid of losing their biggest stream of revenue. If the games only made money on ticket revenues and souvenirs the BCS executives would pretty much break even and not many schools would want to come play the games because their wouldn't be much payouts to the universities.

No matter how much radio talk show hosts, tv analysts, or fans cry these executives are not going to give in because they are making money hand over fist. When people get hit in the pocketbook it always seems to open up their ears and mind. GM, Ford, and Chrysler have been in trouble for years, but the CEO's weren't feeling any pain. These CEO's all made bonuses and great salaries, but when their pay started being affected they took a stand. It is time for the BCS officials to feel that same pain and give the fans and universities what they deserve. A TRUE NATIONAL CHAMPION!

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