The most uninspiring show on television this weekend was the “BCS Selection Show” on Fox. No, I take it back. It was actually the most uninspiring show of the year. It wasn’t Fox’s fault. They just happened to be the network that had the rights to show the show. The problem lies with those who make the so-called selections. It’s a farce.
I give my wife and daughters all kinds of heat for wasting valuable time watching shows like “Project Runway,” “America’s Next Top Model” or “Top Chef.” I think of them as non-reality shows masquerading as reality shows. As a sports buff, I’ve always believed that live sports is the best reality show on TV. While the producer can put the production together and the director can line up the camera shots, there is literally nothing anyone can do to affect what goes on the field, or the court, or the ice, or wherever the contest is being played.
The “BCS Selection Show”—BCS being short for “Bowl Championship Series”—showed how College Football is more reminiscent of, say, professional boxing than amateur sports.
“Who’s the best? We don’t know,” said one of the announcers in the show. That, you see, is the problem. No one knows who’s the best, and it will not be decided on the field.
“USC’s the best,” said Johnnie Johnson.
“Oklahoma’s the best,” said Barry Switzer.
…and neither of those schools are playing in the National Championship game.
Ohio State, a team which played several sub-par teams and whose opponents comprise the weakest schedule of any of the top contenders, will be playing for the National Championship. LSU, the champion of one of the toughest conferences in America, is the other team. The champions of the other leagues have been arbitrarily eliminated from the process. By who? Well, by coaches, ex-coaches and computer geeks.
The college players have become something like modern-day gladiators, giving it all they’ve got on the field while the onlookers and those standing by figure out how to make a profit off of them. It’s not inspiring. It’s discouraging. It’s a shame. It’s a sham.
But it will make plenty of dollars for advertisers, for the networks, for the fortunate schools
which got selected…and for all of the bar-owners, sports bar franchises and sports television networks who’ll profit from this enterprise. It trains our most potentially high achieving young leaders to learn that corporate raiders, political forces and capital realities are more important than individual achievement. It’s dead wrong.
So congratulations to the kids from Kansas (even though they didn’t make their conference championship game), Georgia (even though they didn’t make their conference championship game), Hawaii (even though they didn’t play much of anybody tough) and Illinois (who didn’t win their conference) because they get to play in what the networks will call a big game and what their schools will call a Big Payday.
But as inspiring television goes, I’m going upstairs to watch a Project Runway rerun with my daughters. It’s actually more real than the sham I just watched.