BREAKING: USC's 2004 BCS National Championship Is Wiped Off The Books

[HT: BCS}

Is their any surprise that it came to this with USC? After the NCAA denied Southern California's appeal of sauctions imposed a year ago the next dominoe fell.

The Presidential Oversight Committee of the BCS vacated USC's 2005 Orange Bowl, their 2006 Rose Bowl appearance and Southern Cal's 2004-05 BCS National Championship.

“The BCS arrangement crowns a national champion, and the BCS games are showcase events for post-season football,” said BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock in a statement released by the BCS. “One of the best ways of ensuring that they remain so is for us to foster full compliance with NCAA rules. Accordingly, in keeping with the NCAA’s recent action, USC's appearances are being vacated.

“This action reflects the scope of the BCS arrangement and is consistent with the NCAA’s approach when it subsequently discovers infractions by institutions whose teams have played in NCAA championship events.”

Therefore USC's 55-19 win over Oklahoma in the 2005 Orange Bowl and their BCS national championship never happen. This video below is just a figment of our imagination.



And Texas won the BCS national championship defeating some team in red helmets and jerseys 41-38 in the 2006 Rose Bowl.



The OSG HQ wants to know how Auburn fans feel about this.

NCAA to Justice Dept: Talk to the BCS not us

Mark Emmert

Ha! We actually see NCAA president Mark Emmert's point, though it isn't quite that simple.

Emmert today responded to a letter of inquiry from the Justice Department's anti-trust lawyer asking why there was no NCAA playoff in football rather than the "BCS" Championship.

Emmert sent a letter today in response. In that letter, Emmert says "Inasmuch as the BCS system does not fall under the purview of the NCAA, it is not appropriate for me to provide views on the system."

He also added, "With regards to the Association's plans for an FBS football championship, there are no direction absent plans from our membership to do so. These are short answers to your request."

You can read the entire response RIGHT HERE

Technically speaking, Emmert is correct. What's scary here is that the NCAA has essentially ceded the whole premise of a Division One football championship to a corporate entity. And, while that unto itself isn't a "Holy Crap" revelation, it also means essentially "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil".

Keeping in mind the perspective that the NCAA Basketball tournament brings "Billions" of dollars to the NCAA's coffers, it make you wonder why exactly they haven't tried a similar approach with football. It, on several levels defies logic. We find it "INCREDIBLY' hard to believe no NCAA member institution has been willing to propose a playoff. We also are "INCREDIBLY" disappointed if the NCAA really gave up the rights to the championship of their most popular sport for essentially nothing.

No, we think there is something more here. What it is, we don't know, but we have suspicions. We think if the justice department did their due diligence on both the BCS and the Bowl system in general, they'd find a lot more hinky behavior going on. We think there are far too many people on the Bowl level and BCS level making way too much money to give up their golden goose. As evidenced by the Fiesta Bowls lavish spending, they make far more money than any of us can dream of. When the guy in charge of the Sugar Bowl is making $500-plus thousand a year for that job, it is way too damn much. When schools are paying hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions of dollars to these so-called "Non-profit" bowl games for unsold tickets, we smell a scam.

Maybe that is where the DOJ should be spending their time looking.

Fiesta Bowl Got Lucky, Stays In BCS Mix

The Fiesta Bowl stays in the BCS mix but not doing business on the up and up is going to cost them $1 million.

The University presidents and conference commissioners that over the Bowl Championship Series approved the recommendations of a special task force chaired by Penn State University President Graham Spanier to enact a series of sanctions designed to create stronger oversight and better management of the Fiesta Bowl, including a $1 million sanction.

The BCS released this statement from that special task force. “The board of directors of the Fiesta Bowl failed in its responsibility to properly oversee the management and administration of the Bowl. The task force is deeply troubled by the evidence set forth in the [Fiesta Bowl’s] Special Committee’s report. That evidence strongly suggests that the Bowl’s executive staff frequently acted with scant regard for ethics and proper conduct. Further, it is the opinion of the task force that the Bowl’s board of directors over the years was negligent in its oversight responsibilities.”

While the Fiesta Bowl has cleared the BCS hurdle there's still the NCAA who is reviewing the Fiesta Bowl's licensing.

The BCS task force said the way the Fiesta Bowl has taken steps in the right direction saved it from the BCS axe.

"These are strong actions in keeping with the nature of what was revealed in their report." BCS executive director Bill Hancock said. "These actions were not taken to satisfy or not satisfy any critics. They were taken because they were the appropriate actions, in light of the findings."

So the Fiesta Bowl survived this from the BCS. It still doesn't solve what has got to be the worst post-season in all of sports.

Oh sure new oversights will be mandated for the bowl system and I'm sure the term "zero tolerance" will be thrown around. That doesn't mean a damn thing. Bowls exist to make a crap load of money from sponsors and re-distribute that wealth to the conferences and if your in the BCS, the payday is significant.

Don't worry, bowl directors are taken care of too.

I've been on the fence toward a playoff system and still not completely sold for reasons I might get into someday but the BCS is really turning into a big pile of BS.

Here's the report in full, thanks azcentral.com

Here's ESPN's Dari Knowkah discussing with Joe Schad...

Jim Delany and BCS ready to take on Feds

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We don't normally cheer for the government when they stick their collective noses into sports issues, but GOD, do we hope they win this argument.

For those not up to speed, Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney sent a letter last week to NCAA president Mark Emmert last week, questioning the Bowl Championship Series and why the NCAA doesn't have a playoff.

If you follow us, you pretty much know the answer to that question...the people in the BCS and bowl games don't want to give up their money.

Anyway, before we get sidetracked. The NCAA is currently digesting the letter and is a bit concerned the Feds may be throwing the "Anti-trust" thing around. They don't yet know what their response will be.

But....

The folks at USA Today went and asked BCS bigwig and Big 10 Commissioner Jim Delany his thoughts about the issue.

And Delany, as usual, was pretty blunt. He tells the paper he's got confidence there are no "Anti-trust" issues with the BCS. He adds they've done their homework on behalf of the presidents of the schools involved. And this quote "There's no judge or jury in the world that can make you enter into a 4-team, 8-team or 16-team playoff".

Read the rest of the interview with Steve Wieberg of USA Today RIGHT HERE

Pardon us while we stifle a laugh. While we don't disagree with everything Delany says, he's very much perpetuating what many of us think about the BCS.

Invented by the high and mighty to benefit the same. It (the BCS) has nothing to do with being representative of the NCAA, it never has. It only represents the schools in the power conferences and is THE prime example of how the NCAA has no control over those conferences.

The BCS exists for one thing...and one thing only. To benefit those involved with it. And not everybody gets to. It's like their own version of Augusta National Golf Club, only for "High and Mighty" public institutions (Colleges).

You can certainly float the "Anti-trust" argument simply because this isn't an "All-inclusive" group. And if they represent public schools and take taxpayer money (see unpaid tickets for BCS games), then they should represent everyone.

The best example of the elitism of the BCS, arguably a microcosm of the issues the U.S currently faces as whole: Gordon Gee of Ohio State calling out Texas Christian by saying they play a schedule of "Little Sisters of the Poor". (Oh, ye (or Gee) in glass houses) The fact that unless you play in the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, ACC, Pac10/12, or the Big East, means you aren't able to play for the championship. Period.

And yes, as the Mountain West has demonstrated over and over again, there are teams out there better than that.

Enough soap box.

For your College Football fix, enjoy the ESPN produced "Images of the Decade: 2000-2009: