And to somewhat defend Bailey, there are so far only 3 BCS bowls for the NEW contract - Orange, Rose, and SEC/XII (yet to be determined). The other three spots (access bowls) have not been determined and there are at least 5 bowls vying for those 3 spots. Bailey is correct from the point of view of looking at the 2014 and beyond arragement.

That was pitiful, on ESPN's part and on Bailey's part, but if anybody thinks having a strong commissioner in place, who is good at debate, would have made a significant difference in the end, you don't understand the power, money and politics at play here.

Yes, over the long run, a good commissioner can make a difference, but only within the confines of what the other conferences will agree to. Same situation with major bowl tie-ins. We can scream bloody murder all day long, but if the other conferences don't want to include us, or a major bowl won't give us a tie-in, then it ain't gonna happen.

(07-09-2012 03:16 PM)TripleA Wrote:  That was pitiful, on ESPN's part and on Bailey's part, but if anybody thinks having a strong commissioner in place, who is good at debate, would have made a significant difference in the end, you don't understand the power, money and politics at play here.

Yes, over the long run, a good commissioner can make a difference, but only within the confines of what the other conferences will agree to. Same situation with major bowl tie-ins. We can scream bloody murder all day long, but if the other conferences don't want to include us, or a major bowl won't give us a tie-in, then it ain't gonna happen.

This. I posted this before but it is evident the new system was created to cut the Big East out. They couldn't take the automatic qualifier away from the conference under the old rules so they modified things to get their desired result. There's nothing that can be said or done to change this now IMO as the new system was agreed to.

I disagree. A strong commissioner uses that interview as an opportunity to sell the conference. And good sales technique will garner more at contract time.

(07-09-2012 03:25 PM)Cooglius Caeser Wrote:  I disagree. A strong commissioner uses that interview as an opportunity to sell the conference. And good sales technique will garner more at contract time.

But we're not talking about the TV contract, or about doing a better job of selling the conference, in general. I agree with you on that.

But we are talking ONLY about getting a tie-in to a major bowl game, and getting a full share of whatever the new BCS is called. Those two things were gonna happen, no matter who our commish is. It's called market forces, plus consolidation of money and power.