We Demand Playoffs

• Bowls have no risk because teams are obligated to buy unsold tickets.
• Unsold tickets cost teams millions annually (subsidizing the bowls).
• 104 of 120 FBS athletic departments run a deficit.
• Athletic department deficits are subsidized by student fees and university funds (taxpayers).
• Cash strapped universities cut research budgets but continue to buy unsold tickets for the privilege of going to a bowl game.
• The leaders of these universities refuse to change to a more profitable system that would alleviate the burden on students and taxpayers.

How does this make any sense at all??

Take a look at “The Bowls: Silly Extravagance or Worthwhile Tradition?” And then consider all the corruption recently revealed at the Fiesta Bowl, with the silly $1 million fine imposed by the BCS as a pseudo punishment. Yet the Fiesta Bowl is sitting on a surplus of $15+ million as a non-profit organization? Please.

It’s time college football did something right and abandoned this nonsense that is the bowl system. All it does is put more money in the pockets of fat, greedy ass holes who go on cruises and play golf and hold one event a year as “work”. And they are subsidized by us, the taxpayers.

It’s time to start a playoff that keeps teams at home for the first few rounds, eliminating wasted travel costs and bolstering local economies of teams that earn their keep on the field.

It’s time to stop setting the example of greed and corruption in college football.

It’s time to re-introduce fair play and sportsmanship as desirable qualities in college football.

Do something about it – send your leadership an email now and let them know you demand change!

College football fans, now is the time to demand a change in the system. Do you really want the amateur sport you love to be ruined by corruption, greed and abuse by people in power? Use our system to email people involved with your favorite team and tell them you demand a change. Don’t like playoffs? Fine. Just tell them this bowl racket has got to go.

Fiesta Bowl saga strong reminder that BCS system invites corruption

Decide for yourself when you look at the facts divulged by Brent Schrotenboer of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Here’s the basic formula for bowl games to guarantee themselves money from tax-payer funded public institutions (and some private institutions):

• Require minimum ticket purchase by each school
• Offer guaranteed pay-out to each school, using guaranteed ticket sales as majority of pay-out
• Any losses resulting from school’s ticket sales below required allotment are transferred to schools, NOT BOWLS!

So schools lose money on everything from low-tier to BCS bowl games, while Bowl committee members and employees enjoy healthy annual paychecks and major perks. And it’s all funded by guaranteed ticket sales purchased by tax-payer funded public universities either directly or indirectly (contribution via conference affiliation).

This is why Congress should be involved in breaking up the BCS Cartel – YOU AND I ARE THE ONE BEING RIPPED OFF IN THE END!

• Ohio State was required to buy 17,500 tickets to the Fiesta Bowl last Jan. 5 but only sold 9,983, leading to a loss of $1 million for the Buckeyes and the Big Ten Conference.

• Minnesota and the Big Ten bought the required 10,500 tickets for the Insight Bowl last year in Arizona. They only sold 1,512, absorbing a loss of $434,340.

• Ball State and the Mid-American Conference bought 8,889 tickets to the GMAC Bowl in Alabama last Jan. 6 but sold only 1,431, absorbing $400,005.

• Oklahoma State and the Big 12 bought 11,000 to the Holiday Bowl last year but couldn’t sell 5,438, absorbing $318,490.

• Utah was required to buy 10,000 to the Poinsettia Bowl in 2007 (tickets at right) but sold only 2,361 and absorbed $267,365.

Way to go, Matt & co! Our friends at PlayoffPAC have filed a formal complaint with the Arizona Secretary of State, to investigate the Fiesta Bowl and make records public.

Hopefully this will yield more results than the Fiesta Bowl’s self-investigation, which shockingly found no wrongdoing.