Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series
Oct 2010 · Penguin
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About this ebook
A team of award-winning sports reporters takes down the Great Satan of college sports: the Bowl Championship Series.
Every college sport picks its champion by a postseason tournament, except for one: Division I-A football. Instead of a tournament, fans are subjected to the Bowl Championship Series, an arcane mix of polling and mathematical rankings that results in just two teams playing for the championship. It is, without a doubt, the most hated institution in all of sports. A recent Sports Illustrated poll found that more than 90 percent of sports fans oppose the BCS, yet this system has remained in place for more than a decade. Built upon top-notch investigative reporting, Death to the BCS at last reveals the truth about this monstrous entity and offers a simple solution for fixing it.
Death to the BCS includes findings from interviews with power players, as well as research into federal tax records, Congressional testimony, and private contracts, revealing:
?The truth behind the "Cartel"-the anonymous suits who run the BCS and who profit handsomely by protecting it
?The flawed math and corruption that determine which teams participate in the national championship
?How the system hurts competition by perpetuating "cupcake" schedules
?How "mid-major" teams are systematically denied a chance to play for the championship
?How a comprehensive sixteen-team playoff plan can solve the problem while enhancing profitability
The first book to lay out the unseemly inner workings of the BCS in full detail, Death to the BCS is a rousing manifesto for bringing fairness back to one of our most beloved sports.
Every college sport picks its champion by a postseason tournament, except for one: Division I-A football. Instead of a tournament, fans are subjected to the Bowl Championship Series, an arcane mix of polling and mathematical rankings that results in just two teams playing for the championship. It is, without a doubt, the most hated institution in all of sports. A recent Sports Illustrated poll found that more than 90 percent of sports fans oppose the BCS, yet this system has remained in place for more than a decade. Built upon top-notch investigative reporting, Death to the BCS at last reveals the truth about this monstrous entity and offers a simple solution for fixing it.
Death to the BCS includes findings from interviews with power players, as well as research into federal tax records, Congressional testimony, and private contracts, revealing:
?The truth behind the "Cartel"-the anonymous suits who run the BCS and who profit handsomely by protecting it
?The flawed math and corruption that determine which teams participate in the national championship
?How the system hurts competition by perpetuating "cupcake" schedules
?How "mid-major" teams are systematically denied a chance to play for the championship
?How a comprehensive sixteen-team playoff plan can solve the problem while enhancing profitability
The first book to lay out the unseemly inner workings of the BCS in full detail, Death to the BCS is a rousing manifesto for bringing fairness back to one of our most beloved sports.
Ratings and reviews
3.5
6 reviews
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July 10, 2012
I love how in depth this book goes into showing how bad the BCS and bowl system in general have gotten. The new playoff is just a first step in righting the ship.
About the author
Dan Wetzel is an author, screenwriter, and columnist for Yahoo Sports, one of the most read sports site on the Web. Wetzel has coauthored four books, including The New York Times bestseller Resilience: Faith, Focus, Triumph with Alonzo Mourning, and lives in Michigan. Wetzel is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Josh Peter writes for Yahoo Sports. He is an award-winning, Pulitzer Prize–nominated investigative journalist and the coauthor of Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series. Peter lives in Los Angeles.
Jeff Passan writes for Yahoo Sports. He has won multiple Associated Press sports editors' awards and is the coauthor of Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series. Passan lives in Kansas.
Josh Peter writes for Yahoo Sports. He is an award-winning, Pulitzer Prize–nominated investigative journalist and the coauthor of Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series. Peter lives in Los Angeles.
Jeff Passan writes for Yahoo Sports. He has won multiple Associated Press sports editors' awards and is the coauthor of Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series. Passan lives in Kansas.
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