Duh

There's a solid article on Rivals/Yahoo on the debacle that is the bowl system.  And nevermind whether or not you 'believe' in the BCS, this is about cash-money-records, and the schools are getting screwed.

Shocked?  You shouldn't be, and I doubt you are.  Considering that this whole thing is a byzantine system that has grown up through complete randomness and a collection of leaders from different institutions over time, and that the current leadership thinks the BCS is the best way to pick a champion - not shocked at all.

But here's the thing - who steps in to run the bowls if not these 3rd parties?   The "conferences", which are just a loose affiliation of schools that are somewhat geographically centric?  Nope.  The "BCS Organization"?  Heck no, they can't even figure out how to do a playoff, let alone run mega-events.  ESPN?  No way they're going to pay whatever price ESPN would take, even if it would result in the schools/conferences taking more home at the end of the day (which is a huge assumption).  They don't want anyone that's competing with their "Conference Network" to get in on the action.  Maybe a single school could take over a bowl each year?  HAHAHAHA.  Schools aren't equipped to do these things either.

So yeah, it's a messed up system that's extremely wasteful and schools are throwing away money left and right.  But they do so because they have no other choice.  So these 3rd parties run amok and crazy and take their share and leave the affiliated schools with scraps, if anything, at the end of the day.  But they do get a big old party, and some of the school/conference big-wigs get some solid seats and a couple free steak dinners, so everyone's happy!  To get it changed, you need either 1) visionary leaders or 2) incentives.  Right now, very few of the first exist at the right places, and there's very little of the second.