The presidents of nine Western Athletic Conference schools and the Mountain West Conference voted to accept the current terms of the Bowl Championship Series and agreed to participate in the system through 2013 despite concerns about access to the five prestigious bowl games and revenue distribution.
The WAC will attach a letter “that will lay out the concerns we have and basically express our strong objection to the current BCS structure,” Boise State president Bob Kustra said.
“That’s the way both conferences are looking at it: We have no choice,” Kustra said. “Everybody understood that there are so many financial ramifications to not signing it. We simply didn’t have any elbow room on this.”
Kustra said Tuesday that not signing the agreement “may be a risk worth taking.” In the end, however, he voted to accept the agreement.
“The repercussions were just too dramatic and too costly. Can you really take that chance?” Kustra said.
WAC commissioner Karl Benson sent the presidents a memo detailing the problems associated with not agreeing to the deal before the vote.
“The commissioner was basically telling us we didn’t have a big choice,” Kustra said. “We could all read between the lines.”
The Mountain West Conference begrudgingly executed the Bowl Championship Series agreement and the attendant rights agreement with ESPN on July 8.
“The Mountain West believes it has no choice at this time but to sign the agreements,” MWC board of directors chairman and University of Utah president Michael Young said.
“If a conference wishes to compete at the highest levels of college football, and the only postseason system in place for that is the BCS, no one conference can afford to drop out and penalize its football programs and student-athletes.”
The conference was the last to sign the agreement, which ends after the 2013 season, but will not cease trying to amend the controversial system.
“The Mountain West will continue its efforts for change, including a request for dialogue with representatives of the BCS,” Young added. “Our goal is to ensure the eventual outcome of these endeavors is what our universities and student-athletes need, what the vast majority of American sports fans want, and what is long overdue: an equitable system.”
The Mountain West Conference has been the leading voice against the BCS, gaining the attention of political figures like Representative Joe Barton of Texas and Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah.
The MWC has stepped up its efforts to force an amendment to the BCS since the end of last season when one of its member teams, the Utah Utes, were left out of the BCS national championship game despite completing their regular season undefeated.
ESPN and the BCS agreed to a four-year deal worth $500 million in November 2008.
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