FRESNO, Calif. — You know the “Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime” motto was inspired by this whole BCS mess. That’s easy to forget.

Back when coach Pat Hill was just taking over the Fresno State football program, before the money really got insane, before ESPN owned everything, before there was a million-dollar football coach anywhere, let alone everywhere, it was pretty clear that a shady deal was going down.
The money-laundering scheme known as the BCS was being plotted, and it was becoming obvious that Fresno State and a lot of other football programs were going to get left out.
Hill was mad about that. It still irks him, of course, although not like it did in the late ’90s. And when other coaches in the WAC, and what would soon become the Mountain West, were cautious about speaking out against it, Hill went the other way.
You want to leave us out? You want to make us irrelevant? You want to create an athletics system in American colleges where the budgets and access and facilities become so lopsided that a good percentage of the field simply cannot win the national title under any circumstance?
Fine. We’ll play you. On your field. In your time zone. At whatever hour you and the TV people work out. We won’t even be tricky about it. Our undersized farm boys will line up and take you on. And then they’ll get up and do it again.
It was crazy, but damn it was cool. It was this impossible suicide mission, the kind they make movies about, and Hill and those original assistants built a program out of that theme.
Now sure, some leaks have developed in the good ship. The mantra isn’t nearly as romantic now, especially since Boise State snuck in and built a monster on errorless games against beatable opponents. The Broncos won conference titles and picked off beat-up Fresno State teams and you know the rest.
The transformation to tactical is tough when you’ve branded yourself the tough guy, when you’ve been putting a finger in faces for so long.
But how right was Hill and everyone else who screamed against the BCS, though? What a crock. What a crime. What a twisted version of fair play.
And BCS executive director Bill Hancock and everyone else involved with the BCS are proud of what’s been created. You’d think they’d at least be embarrassed, but instead they have the gall to claim it’s the best way to decide a champion. They hold this year’s result up as a gleaming example of what the BCS can accomplish: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 2 Texas.
The BCS got it right, they say. What they don’t say is they got it right because the names are recognizable. It’s right because the two teams were on the guest list. It’s right because No.1’s coach makes nearly $4 million a year and No.2’s coach makes $5million a year. (Texas just announced Mack Brown’s raise this week, the first college coach to break the $5million mark.)
In some parts of the Western Athletic Conference, those could pass for budgets. Not football budgets, entire athletic budgets. The sport goes back to black-and-white photography, and the BCS completely changed it in less than a decade.
Why is Texas No. 2? If they played tomorrow on a neutral field, TCU would beat the Longhorns by 10. Cincinnati, TCU and Boise State all have better wins than Texas. Can the Broncos not beat any team in America? Did anyone see the Oregon game? Was the Hook-and-Lateral-and-Proposal Fiesta Bowl that long ago?
Alabama and Texas finished the season ahead because they started it ahead. And they will start it ahead next year, too. The BCS came up with the perfect plan for keeping Boise State and TCU from proving how far they’ve come, for snuffing out their momentum. Have them play each other, make them eat at the kids’ table.
And that concludes this year’s rant against the BCS and its pretend championship. Until next season, enjoy the holidays and another ridiculous ending in an otherwise wonderful sport.