Why Fox will make the BCS live up to its acronym

My first non-mobile technology post is predictably sports related. Some political posts may ensue too, but the sheer boredom of a Saturday with no football compelled me to offer Rupert Murdoch a suggestion on how he can make more money from his TV network.

The Bowl Championship Series is the much maligned title of the NCAA’s attempt to produce an undisputed champion of Division I college football teams. This year I think it’s hard to argue it didn’t succeed, as Florida thoroughly dominated Ohio St. in the BCS championship game to take the crown. This result, in addition to Michigan’s poor showing in the Rose Bowl against USC dampened the argument that Michigan was more deserving to be in championship game than Florida.

I would argue however that debating between the number 2 and 3 teams in the final BCS rankings year after year is a problem that can’t be continued, and it doesn’t have to be with minimal lawyerly involvement required. Here’s how:

This year was the first year of the 5th BCS bowl game, except it wasn’t a traditional bowl game, it was the “Tostitos BCS National Championship Game”, played a full week after New Year’s Day even. If this isn’t the perfect setup for at least a “plus 1” format to become possible initially, I don’t know what is. Fox’s 4 year BCS contract runs through 2010, and to not do this at least by the final 2 years of the contract would be foolish, especially if it’s as legally doable as one would think, given the current setup. At least in this format we’d be arguing about the who the number 4 team is instead of the the number 2: not a great argument to have but certainly better than what we have now. So what night have happened this year?

I’d bet Michigan might have retained their #2 BCS ranking, which would have put Florida 3rd and LSU 4th. So, the Michigan/Florida debate would have been settled on the field on New Year’s Day and LSU vs. Ohio State would have been a pretty savory match-up too huh?! If the BCS Championship can acceptably be a week after New Year’s Day now, then with a mini-playoff, why can’t it be 2 weeks after or even three……?

Which leads me to the smartest advice I’ve ever given anyone. Rupert listen closely now. Imagine last weekend again. It was of course highlighted for us football fans by the NFL conference championships (Thank God Peyton finally beat Bellicheck & Brady). Imagine last weekend again, excerpt insert the “BCS Final Four” on Saturday! My friends the 2nd or 3rd weekend in January would become the greatest weekend of the year immediately, and imagine the ratings Fox would get owning 3 of those 4 games! And oh by the way, their two biggest shows, 24 and American Idol, launch in January too providing ridiculous Promotional opportunities to draw even more viewers to those shows.

Of course, this would require an 8 team playoff and the 4 BCS bowls could finally become just what the acronym says: a true bowl championship series. The Rose Bowl is owned by ABC, and though they might have a thing or two to say about the current format being altered, I’m not sure why they would have a problem with their bowl game becoming must see TV every New Years Day? In fact it just occurred to me why the 5th BCS bowl game became necessary. When it’s the Rose Bowl’s turn to host the BCS National Championship, it can’t be the Rose Bowl anymore if Fox owns it yes?

Regardless, the 8 team playoff would also require a plus 3 format. Semifinal games could be hosted by the remaining high seeds and the BCS Championship would be the same as it was this year (a 2nd game for one of the 4 BCS bowl sites), just 2 weeks later than it was this year. Before you scoff at the likelihood of that development and call me greedy, consider how greedy Rupert is and how bored you’ve been today, which pales in comparison to how bored you’ll be tomorrow: the official black hole of sports Sundays created by the advertisement revenue sucking week off the NFL takes between the conference championships and the Super Bowl.

This weekend each year is desperately in need of a “College Football Super Bowl” and again the legal entity who stands to gain the most from this is the corporation most likely to engineer it: Fox!

Sexiest modem for the Mac: in white, and Black

David Ciccone deserves the credit for figuring this out and with a little more assistance from Julian, I am posting via my Blackjack’s solid HSDPA connection tethered to my Mac Mini. Is this the best looking modem of all time, dare I ask?

Of course this solution has been out a while, but not until my router recently died did I feel compelled to attempt it. Connecting through the HSDPA radio on the Blackjack actually seems faster than the 802.11g connection the Mini was previously utilizing, even though the picture attached wouldn’t seem to prove that. Maybe the latency of web page downloads on HSDPA connections is less than that on WiFi?