Big-time college football does not decide its champion with a playoff. Instead, at the conclusion of the regular season, the top-ranked teams couple up and scatter, key-party style, to play in bowl games of varying interest.
The point man for the system, the Bowl Championship Series, resides in Prairie Village. He's Bill Hancock, a former assistant commissioner of the Big Eight Conference and a former director of the Final Four. Hancock became the executive director of the BCS in November.
Defending the BCS -- which this season denied three undefeated teams the chance to play for the national title -- is not an easy task, and Hancock failed to meet the challenge in the early going. Making an appearance on Dan Patrick's radio show on November 18, Hancock made the ludicrous assertion that the bowl system was just as satisfying as March Madness, the exquisite NCAA basketball tournament. Hancock illustrated the point by describing (of all things) an ankle injury that a Virginia Tech football player suffered while riding a jet ski.
Hancock's performance was widely ridiculed. His words even ended up a commercial put together by a political action committee lobbying for a playoff.
Later, in a conversation with The Kansas City Star's Blair Kerkhoff, Hancock admitted that the radio interview went badly.
On Thursday, before the game that matched up the two highest-ranked undefeated teams, Hancock tried to regain his footing. Speaking to reporters in southern California, Hancock made state-of-the-BCS address in which he defended the system without calling it an "awesome thing," as he had on Patrick's show. (Even defenders of the status quo have to admit the BCS is an imperfect beast.)
Also absent: references to personal watercraft.
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