The Mark Cuban Situation

Ed. Note: This post was written by Brady.

Hold on, one second BCS.

After stating his desire to create a college football playoff system, Mark Cuban (current owner of the Dallas Mavericks) has started a company called Radical Football in an effort to expedite the process.  According to a story first published in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Cuban said that the company’s goal is “to impact college football so that the last two teams playing are the best two teams”.  Cuban referred to the BCS as “an inefficient business where there’s obviously a better way of doing it and added that Radical Football intends to “advance towards that goal”.

Cuban is unsure what the structure of the company will be or how many it may take to staff it although he already has one employee in Brett Morris.  “he is real engaged in this” said Morris who has experience at a national marketing agency along with holding the promotions coordinator title at Notre Dame.

Cuban’s basic idea is to keep the current system but make it more profitable for schools to attend his playoff bracket rather than participating in the current bowls saying “put $500 million in the bank and go to all the schools and pay them the money as an option.  Say, look, I’m going to give you X amount of dollars every five years.  In exchange, you agree to go if you’re picked for our playoff system”.

I don’t really agree with this ides as I love the history and pageantry of the bowl games.  However, if this is what it takes to get a real tournament and decide things on the field, it may be the only way to scare the BCS into action.  There will be other proposals as well.  College students from numerous universities made presentations to Mr. Morris for other viable playoff systems.  A team from Oxford University won the competition (really?  A team from ENGLAND beat out the other American schools?  Sigh…) and will present their plan to Cuban later this year.

Finally somebody with resources and a bad attitude has formed a plan, along with a company, in hopes of advancing towards a college football playoff on the FBS level.  Mark Cuban has always been a larger-than-life character in the sporting world which has turned many people off.  Publicity stunts at fast food restaurants, exchanging verbal punches with David Stern and exorbitant fines stemming from said punches (most in amounts that many of us would only dream of earning in a decade) are just some of this billionaire’s antics that have played out in the media over the years.

I usually can’t stand this type of brash character in the sports world but will make a HUGE exception on behalf of Mr. Cuban (I’m sure he was sweating that out).  Nobody outside the college football world, besides the White House, has had the stones to come out and openly challenge the BCS with a real plan with money to back it up.  Sure the blogosphere has been rife with playoff talk for years and legislation has been proposed by the jilted lovers.. err.. congressmen from the states of Utah and Idaho.  All of the noise has amounted to no more than a whisper as the BCS fat cats are more than happy to line their pockets with 6 figure salaries for a mere months work.  If it takes a madman (not far from the truth) to stir the pot and get this whole corrupt system on its’ way toward a playoff… let the madness begin!

My next post in a few days will focus on my personal thoughts for a playoff and why the current system is the most un-American, dare I say Communist, way to decide a champion of any major sport in this country… or anywhere for that matter.  I hope you come back for that!