It’s over now. #1 played #2 and #1 was victorious.

It was a great game, with a little of everything in it for college football fans – interceptions, injuries, trick plays, and heartwarming stories of players who faced adversity and kept going.

However, there was something just not right about it.  This is not the game we should have had.

It has been over a month since the BCS, aided by computers (what would we do without them?), decided which two teams would face each other in its don’t-call-it-a-national-championship game. There were four more Saturdays of college football in which the fans could have had the playoff that included all of the best teams in football, not just those ordained by a group of insiders deadset on protecting their million dollar paychecks.

Joe Paterno said it best in a recent interview with ESPN. “We must have a championship game. We get forgotten after we finish the season. I don’t like the BCS. I think we need a playoff.”

The team with even one loss gets forgotten because their fate is decided immediately upon the regular season’s end. And what’s worse for teams that are not in an elite conference such as Penn State, even with a perfect season, a mid-major will be similarly exiled. Just ask Boise State how they felt after beating TCU in the anticlimactic Fiesta Bowl.

As responsible sports fans, we want the college football season to last with an eye toward keeping our school’s athletes healthy – but with meaningful games leading up to the crowning of a true champion.

Without a playoff in the month of December, we will never know. If that means Alabama doesn’t play Jack State in September, so be it. We’d rather see an Alabama-Florida playoff rematch then the Florida-Charleston Southern blowout in Week 1.

Picking the final two teams for NCAA Football’s top prize  shouldn’t include a debate of what clique they hang out in. In this new decade, let the champion be decided on the field.

The pressure is coming to bear on the BCS to change their ways. Momentum is building from fans and sports media and it is reaching the point where it is very likely that College Bowls will be “flushed” and playoffs will be instituted.

We are at a real tipping point. It has been said that there are 3 types of
people in the World; those people who make things happen; those people who watch things happen; and those people who never knew what happened. SFC needs people who make things happen and we need you now.

Together with your help, SFC can help put a stake in the heart of the BCS. We
need you to join SFC to help us help you make this happen. We are so close
to bringing equity and fairness to college football. A success in killing
off the bowl system will empower the fan to realize many more
accomplishments in areas like blackouts of games, ticket pricing, stadium
funding, etc.

Let’s double up our efforts today to help bring real change to college
football.

2009 was a tremendous year and Sports Fans Coaltion would like to take a moment to thank you for becoming a fan of SFC on Facebook, for following us on twitter, and most importantly, for joining SFC’s fight for Sports Fans rights as consumers represented in Congress and in every city across the country.

On this New Year’s Day, you’re welcome to sit back and listen to a very frank discussion on Intercollegiate Athletics in the 4th Annual Shirley Povich Symposium at the Phillip Merrill School of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park. 

Edge of Sports Radio – Segment 1 – George Solomon

Edge of Sports Radio – Segment 2 – Kevin Blackistone

Edge of Sports Radio – Segment 3 – Symposium Part 1

Edge of Sports Radio – Segment 4 – Symposium Part 2

Edge of Sports Radio – Segment 5 – Stephen Heyer

Edge of Sports Radio – Segment 6 – Scott van Pelt

The symposium was broadcast as a special on SFC board member Dave Zirin’s Sirius XM Radio show Edge of Sports featuring Michael Wilbon, Stephen Heyer, Debbie Yow, Gary Williams, Kevin Blackistone, Scott van Pelt, and hosted by Connie Chung and Maury Povich.

Listen particularly closely to the debate on the Bowl Championship Series in which Michael Wilbon references the organization as a ‘cartel’.  Some excellent points from intelligent people on issues that affect sports fans. 

We look forward to a year of many possibilities for BIG issues to fall in favor of the sports fan.  The bigger we get, the more we can throw our weight around and get some traction on the issues before us. 

Join us today to start the year off on the right foot.

Happy New Year from SFC!

THE FOLLOWING PRESS RELEASE IS SFC APPROVED: 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, today sent a letter to both FOX and Time Warner urging for a swift resolution to current negotiations in order to stop consumers, and football fans, from waking up without College Bowl games on New Year’s Day.  

“Fox and Time Warner need to strike a deal – millions of football fans are depending on it,” said Sen. Kerry.  “Having screens go dark because two parties couldn’t come together in time is no solution.  New Year’s Day and football are synonymous in households across the nation.  Private industry negotiations cannot disrupt a fundamental American tradition.”

The full text of the letter is below:

Mr. Chase Carey

President and Chief Operating Officer

News Corporation

1211 Avenue of Americas

New York, New York 10036

Mr. Glenn Britt

Chairman and CEO

Time Warner Cable

60 Columbus Circle

NY, NY 10023

Dear Sirs:

I am aware that FOX and Time Warner Cable have been involved for some time in negotiations regarding the terms of carriage for FOX-owned broadcast television stations, as well as FOX-owned cable channels. 

These are private negotiations, and I hope that the parties reach a mutually acceptable resolution before the existing agreement expires on December 31.  If you fail to do so, I suggest that FOX allow Time Warner Cable to continue transmitting programming through the College Bowl season either under current terms and conditions or under terms and conditions that will be retroactively applied once an agreement is reached, or under some third option.  I also suggest that both parties strongly consider entering arbitration rather than having consumers lose access to programming.

If I understand correctly, at midnight on December 31, 2009, FOX content may be removed from cable systems Time Warner Cable owns.  This means that, in January, millions of Time Warner Cable customers around the country could lose access to the Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and Orange Bowl, as well as NFL playoff games.  Prior to the digital transition, many consumers were able to put up rabbit ear antennas to receive programming. However, digital receivers are more expensive and complex to use.  We do not want consumers waking up on the first day of the New Year wanting to watch football and instead finding that they have to take a trip to the electronics store to purchase a digital receiver in the hope that they receive a clear over the air signal.

As the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communication, Technology, and the Internet, I have sought to place the interests of consumers at the center of our work.  If both parties conclude that the best alternative to a negotiated agreement is to have screens go dark for consumers, then they will have neglected the core interests of the millions of households that subscribe to Time Warner Cable in affected markets.  As leaders of major companies that are FCC licensees and are obligated to serve the public interest, I hope and expect that you will resolve this matter consistent with those obligations.

Sincerely, 

John Kerry

God Bless you, John Kerry, for working on this issue so near and dear to the SFC faithful’s hearts during this holiday season.  We need more politicians to speak up and speak out, advocating for the sports fan. 

We emplore you to follow up Senator Kerry’s letter with your own using the addresses above.  Let’s put the pressure on the networks to give us our games.  Let’s start the new year off with a victory!

Yesterday, the proposed markup of the College Football Playoff Act of 2009 sponsored by Rep. Joe Barton’s (R-Texas)  was approved in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The measure, which SFC reported on and approved on Monday, “would ban promoting, marketing or advertising a ‘national championship game’ unless the game is part of a single-elimination playoff tournament like the National Football League playoffs, lest college football’s governing body be held in violation of Federal Trade Commission truth-in-advertising provisions.” 

The bill appeared to anger BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock who has repeatedly claimed that congress has ‘more important things to do’.  Sounds like a Karl Rovian or Fleischeresque, if you will, tactic focusing on the WMD’s.  That is, Weapons of Mass Distraction.  Fortunately, the subcommittee chairman and co-sponsor of the bill, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Illinois) slapped Hancock down with a classic line, “We can walk and chew gum at the same time,” that could have just as easily been uttered by Clint Eastwood in the final scene of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

For any still on the fence about the legitimacy of ‘congressional meddling’ in this instance, please read John Feinstein’s rant in Monday’s Washington Post.  It’s a scathing review of a system that’s more dysfunctional than your typical family gettogether around the holidays.