By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season
NEW YORK -- After driving down the field toward what would hopefully be a much-needed score, NCAA suits fumbled away an opportunity to take a key first step to fixing the postseason mess.
The BCS people have turned the Rose Bowl into the Stepdaddy Of 'Em All by announcing it will take a team from a non-BCS conference under certain scenarios from the 2010 season through the 2013 season.
Since 1947 until the late 1990s, the game was contracted to pair up the Big Ten and PAC 10 champions. And with the emergence of the BCS in 1998, the leagues have still sent their champions to that game unless one earns a spot in the national championship game.
Now, in such a case where the league champ plays for the BCS crown and misses the Rose Bowl, a team from a non-BCS league will fill that vacancy, according to The Associated Press.
I fully appreciate the move to include a team from a non-BCS school. I really do. I just don't get why the Rose Bowl is the guinea pig for the experiment. Non-BCS outfits from Hawaii and Utah earned spots in the Sugar Bowl each of the last two years, and Boise State won an exciting Fiesta Bowl over Oklahoma after the 2006 season.
The Rose Bowl is called the Grandaddy Of 'Em All for a reason. Sure the Fiesta Bowl offers the biggest payouts, but there is far more history and tradition in Pasadena than Miami, New Orleans or Glendale. Do we really want to tinker with it just so the TCU Horned Frogs can feel good about themselves one of these years?
Why not use the Sugar, Orange or Fiesta bowls for this project, or at the very least use a rotating system for the four years then re-evaluate after the contract expires?
Or, better yet, just add in the plus-one playoff already.