We, Daniel Deceuster and Joe Partridge, are a couple of college football fans. We each run our own anti-BCS website. We, like many of you, hate the BCS because of their refusal to listen to fans and implement a playoff system. So we got together and decided to try something new, given the very real possibility that no single endeavor is going to have the effect on the BCS executives that we all hope for.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of individual efforts that separately are attempting to force the hands of the BCS. From dedicated websites to occasional articles; from t-shirts to attempted legislation; they are all fantastic ideas, but we fear that in the end none of them alone will have the desired effect.
Quite honestly, the BCS is just too powerful. There is WAY too much money involved and money truly does decide a lot of things, including the decision to keep the bowl games the way they are.
We’re going to assume that you’ve come to this site and you’ve read this much because you feel similarly. We’re not going to try to indoctrinate you in the evils of the BCS, or why their system is unfair (that much should be obvious anyway). If you’re with us on this, you are already fed up with the current system (probably have been for a long time now) and you just want to hear the new idea. Great, here it is.
Don’t watch the BCS National Championship Game next year. Or the next year, or the next. And every year thereafter, until they listen to fans and implement a playoff system. That’s it. Simply don’t watch their “championship” game.
What will happen? If enough of us don’t watch it, ratings will go down. If ratings go down significantly enough, sponsors will think twice before plunking down millions of dollars on ad time. Unable to command the big dollars for the coveted TV spots, there will be a significant reduction in revenue. “Reduction in revenue,” now that’s the sort of language these greedy old men understand. And it will motivate them.
Now, are we so naïve that we think we can really make this happen? No, we’re not. But are we going to try? Yes, we are. Maybe the first year only a couple thousand of us refuse to watch. The next year, fifteen thousand. The third year, who knows?
The point is we want to send a message. We, the fans, are the real and actual source of the revenue that these BCS executives hoard. We buy tickets to go to the games of our favorite teams. We buy cable and satellite packages so we can watch games from home. We buy merchandise. We frequent the sponsors of the BCS bowls. We, the fans, are the ones who start with the money, and we are the ones who have been handing it over to the greedy suits. In a way, the beleaguered plight of postseason college football is our own fault!
So what we’re saying is, let’s try to hit them where it really hurts, in the pocketbook. Refusing to watch their mythical championship game sends two messages:
1. We don’t recognize your game as a “national championship.”
2. We know we are the original source of your BCS profit. With enough of us not watching your “championship” game, we will reduce the amount of advertising revenue that you’re able to bring in.
Now, if your favorite team is playing in that mythical championship game, do we expect you to miss it? Of course not. Just maybe watch it at a sports bar where it’s already on, instead of at home.J
Now if you like this idea so much that you want to do it AND MORE, please, BY ALL MEANS, feel free. Boycott all the BCS bowls. Boycott their sponsors. Any way you can think of to stop providing them with that cash that they love to corrupt, do it! We applaud all efforts of course. For us, for now, we’re just going to focus on gathering people who agree to skip watching that one game.
So if you like our idea, come along for the ride. Tell ALL your friends that we’re not watching the January 2011 “national championship” game. Let’s get a gathering of fans together so large and so intimidating that those greedy BCS aristocrats will want to… well, I’m sure you can fill in the blank with something.