The Ohio State University President Is Wrong

I hate Division I college football. I love the games and the atmosphere, but I hate the system. It's all about money, yet, every once in a while, someone comes out and says something stupid about the current Bowl Championship Series system because they don't want to admit that it's about the money. This week's winner is The Ohio State University President Gordon Gee, who believes that that even if TCU and Boise State go undefeated, they don't deserve to be in BCS title game.

"I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it's like murderer's row every week for these schools. We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day."

Really? You play Indiana who just received $3 million to play a "home" game at FedEx Field outside of DC against Penn State. You play the 59th-ranked schedule in the country. You pay schools hundreds of thousands of dollars to travel to Columbus for an almost guaranteed victory (see the 73-20 win against Eastern Michigan, a team that also lost at home 71-3 against Northern Illinois).

Dr. Gee said the current system is better for the student-athletes. "It's not about this incessant drive to have a national championship because I think that's a slippery slope to professionalism," he said. "I'm a fan of the bowl system and I think that by and large it's worked very, very well."

A slippery slope to professionalism? Have you noticed that your conference created its own cable station, the Big 10 Network? You just added Nebraska to the conference so that you can have a conference championship game. Both of these moves show that you are already at the bottom of the professionalism slope.

Once again, it comes down to money. Division 1 football is the only college sport without a true championship. You could easily have an 8 or 16-team playoff system if the number of regular season games was reduced to 10 or 11. However, doing this would prevent Ohio State and other major college programs from hosting 7 home college football games. Ohio State makes millions of dollars for every home game. Why give up that paycheck or the money you receive from BCS games to allow schools from non-BCS conference (like Boise State or TCU) to get a share? You won't because the system works well for you.

In full disclosure, I earned my Masters degree from The Ohio State University. I have contributed money to the institution and consider myself a fan of the football team. I just think that President Gee is completely wrong here. Perhaps he should refrain from talking about the BCS and spend more time lobbying the Ohio legislature to give the institution more money.

By the way, tell me that this doesn't get you pumped up for the Ohio State-Michigan game? Go Bucks!