Non-BCS schools form coalition to seek changes
| • | Have-nots finally have united front |
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer
The University of Hawai'i football team could go 13-0 this season and not be invited to a Bowl Championship Series game, according to the head of a coalition of presidents that wants to reform the BCS and Division I-A athletics.
"I'm guessing that Hawai'i would have virtually no chance of getting to a BCS bowl," said Tulane president Scott Cowen, point man for the newly formed Presidential Coalition for Athletic Reform.
"There is a bias (in the strength-of-schedule formula) against non-BCS schools," Cowen said. "So, where it is theoretically possible for a school to get in a BCS bowl, practically speaking, I don't think it would happen."
Tulane, which went 11-0 in 1998, was denied a place in the BCS and consigned to the Liberty Bowl, where it received $1.1 million — or about $10 million less than if it had been selected for a top BCS game.
"We believe the BCS is anti-competitive and has the characteristics of a cartel," Cowen said. "We simply want a level playing field."
Buffalo president William R. Greiner compared the BCS, "to what John D. Rockefeller tried to do to his competitors."
The BCS games are the Rose, Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls. Because no school from outside the six conferences that make up the BCS and Notre Dame has played in the lucrative series in its five-year history, 44 presidents and chancellors from 56 non-BCS schools banded together to form the coalition and held a conference call yesterday.
In addition to the BCS issues, the coalition said it seeks "higher academic standards" for athletes, "lower operating costs" and a greater voice in the decision-making process.
Hawai'i athletic director Herman Frazier said through a spokesman that UH was not participating in the conference call.
The six BCS conferences are the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern. Their champions are each guaranteed $13.5 million and runners-up are eligible for the $4.5 million at-large berth.
Notre Dame can qualify for a BCS bowl by either winning nine games or finishing in the top 10 of the BCS rankings.
Members of the Western Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mountain West, Mid-America and Sun Belt conferences plus several independents are not guaranteed BCS berths unless they finish in the top six of the BCS standings. Their bowls pay between $750,000 and $5.1 million.
Cowen said a group of representatives from the non-BCS conferences will meet with a BCS delegation Sept. 8 in Chicago. Cowen said the coalition has not ruled out anything, including legal action, if there is not a satisfactory resolution to the issue.
Cowen said, "Our preference is that the BCS would completely go away."
BCS officials said Monday they are not interested in a national playoff when their current TV contract expires after the 2005 season.
