Mark Cuban is a newcomer to the college football arena, specifically as it relates to his distaste of the BCS and his offer to implement a well-funded playoff system.
Over the past several months, Cuban has been writing posts on his blog about the BCS. On Tuesday, he wrote an article about the major BCS schools scheduling cupcakes to impact the rankings.
Since Cuban is just now entering a debate that’s been taking place for years, I thought it would be nice of me to help him understand how and why the automatic qualifying BCS schools schedule opponents.
First, I’ve addressed this issue for two and a half years. In fact, I’ve addressed it so many times it’s actually reached a point where it amazes me how people like Cuban can’t understand why BCS powers schedule the way they do.
Apparently Cuban doesn’t read my site. Too bad – he’d learn something.
Long before Cuban attempted to explain why BCS programs schedule cupcakes – and reading his post tells me it’s a subject he knows nothing about – the BCS, conference realignment, conference schedules and conference championship games completely revised the landscape of college football.
Most athletic directors quickly figured out a formula for success in the new era of college football, and scheduling was arguably the most important aspect of that formula.
While scheduling multiple non-conference games against BCS powers would make people like Cuban happy, the realities are such that doing so isn’t economically viable.
As Cuban attempts to have us believe that BCS powers are gaming the system by scheduling cupcakes, the fact is smaller schools are reaching out to major programs.
Smaller programs can’t generate the revenue needed to operate their athletic departments without playing several BCS powers every season.
The revenues a small school receives from playing against Ohio State or Tennessee in front of more than 100,000 fans is the only way to get the monies needed to keep their athletic programs afloat.
Since the BCS programs have larger operating costs than the smaller schools, they need at least two and preferably three weaker non-conference opponents to maximize the number of home games each season.
In most cases, home games for the major BCS programs generate all the revenue for the school’s entire athletic budget. In some cases, a portion of those revenues help fund the school’s academic departments as well.
To further highlight Cuban’s general lack of knowledge regarding scheduling, of the teams with the toughest schedules this past season, 24 of them played in power BCS conferences.
Cuban makes note of the cupcakes the BCS schools schedules, but he doesn’t take into account the fact that the overwhelming majority of the best teams in the nation play in the power conferences.
Even playing two or three weaker teams each year will not impact the rankings as Cuban suggests.
The major BCS non-conference opponents and especially those teams that are ranked in the top 25 will always impact the rankings more because of how the BCS formula works.
Teams in the power conferences will always face stronger competition than those schools that play in non-automatic qualifying conferences.
Several teams from the SEC could easily play between five and seven ranked opponents in a given season, whereas a team like TCU or Boise State will face no more than two or three.
If anyone wants to point a finger like Cuban does, that finger should be pointed to the teams outside of the power conferences.
Those are the programs that are actually playing more cupcakes than those schools in the major BCS conferences, and the advantages of doing so gives them a better opportunity to complete their schedule undefeated.
Having written all of this, I’ve made my position clear regarding the BCS. I don’t like it and would prefer to see a playoff system implemented that incorporates the current bowl games.
However, there’s no way anyone can convince me that the non-AQ teams can say with any legitimacy that they would have a better chance of playing in a major bowl or a national championship game without the BCS.
TCU wouldn’t have played in the Rose Bowl this year if college football was still using the old method of selecting teams for bowl games. With the BCS, the Horned Frogs got that opportunity.
Despite what anyone may think, Auburn and Oregon were clearly the two best teams in the nation and rightly deserved to play for the BCS national championship.
The Tigers and Ducks played schedules that were substantially more difficult than TCU’s and thus both teams deserved to be ranked higher than the Horned Frogs.
So what have we learned today?
We learned that Mark Cuban doesn’t know shit about college football.
Cuban should stick to yelling at NBA referees and paying fines. He’s gotten pretty good at that.
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