Changes to BCS? Follow the money

Nothing better describes the state of collegiate athletics than the BCS, a system so flawed that it has been almost universally despised from the start by the paying customer and collectively cheered by the NCAA establishment.

How perfect it is, then, that after a season in which the BCS actually got it right — yes, the title game had the correct participants — the very same conference bosses and athletic directors that praised the series all those years now want it changed.

Figures.

After propping it up for more than a decade, athletic directors around the nation are pushing for a change. Clearly, it’s all about money, ratings, TV contracts and — as much as anything — vanity, because of all the years to be upset about the championship game, this should not be the one.

The BCS got Alabama and LSU in the final game, just as it should have been. They were the two best teams from start to finish and they should have played in the title game.

But the rest of the conferences are angry because they haven’t been able to compete with the SEC, which not only placed two teams in the BCS championship game this year, but the SEC has also captured the last six BCS titles.

Of course, the BCS is completely absurd. Every other NCAA sport produces a true national champion, and football at every other collegiate level does the same.

All, but the BCS.

Still, the hypocrites defending it all these years did so as it suited their purposes. The moment it didn’t, you had to expect they would run from it like a captain on a sinking cruise liner.

That is what they do now as meetings began in Dallas Tuesday to discuss alternatives and some fashion of a playoff system, be it four teams, four plus one or even more.

The four plus one would have been a problem last season, when Pac-12 champ Oregon would have been excluded and Stanford — which lost to Oregon — would have been in at No. 4.

“Everyone who looks at the plus-one model realizes that if you have four teams in play, you’re still going to have the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth teams saying we got a bad deal, (that) we should be one of those four teams,” Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne told the AP recently. “So there’ll be continual unrest until you have some kind of a much larger playoff.

Getting all the conferences to agree on anything will be as simple as finding a unanimous voice in the U.N. Security Council, as every conference president will be searching for a way to bring the most revenue back to his athletic directors, while protecting his bowl game, TV ratings and job.

That’s the NCAA. It’s how it always works.

If you’re determined to understand what shape the “new” BCS will take, playoffs and all, simply follow the money.

Next up?

For Illini fans asking the question, Shaka Smart signed an eight-year contract extension a year ago at VCU, increasing his base salary from $350,000 to $1.2 million a year, not including performance bonuses.

So if Illinois wants Smart, and after an expected and expensive buyout of Bruce Weber, the price for Smart will be significant, including compensation for his VCU buyout.

Congrats

To the Score’s Wayne Randazzo, who takes over as play-by-play man for the Kane County Cougars.

The 27-year-old Randazzo, a graduate of St. Charles East High School and North Central College, spent the last four seasons with Double-A Mobile in the Diamondbacks’ system.

Randazzo becomes the eighth broadcaster in franchise history and joins a list of former Cougars broadcasters that includes current big- league announcers Dave Wills (Tampa) and Scott Franzke (Philadelphia).

NBA rewards

NBC’s Jimmy Fallon, on Jeremy Lin: “Soon he’ll be getting all the benefits of being an NBA star. He’ll get a salary bump, an endorsement deal and a Kardashian.”

Best tweet

From “Jim Irsay on Peyton Manning meeting: ‘It’s completely normal to have snipers on top of the building.’”

Debt deal

NBC’s Jay Leno: “President Obama may have significantly reduced our trade deficit with China. He sold the Chinese vice president a billion Jeremy Lin jerseys at $50 apiece.”

And finally …

Omaha World-Herald’s Brad Dickson: “In a survey of America’s rudest cities, Boston finished fifth. It’s misleading. Take away Bill Belichick and Boston is 37th.”

brozner@dailyherald.com

ŸListen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score’s “Hit and Run” show at WSCR 670-AM, and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.