Boise State president reacts to BCS documents

PROVO — A BCS distribution money chart released by a Washington law firm that claims it shows an unfair and discriminatory trend in college football drew a rare reaction by a non-BCS university president on Tuesday when Boise State Robert Kustra asked the public take a peek at the information.

"University presidents and others who care deeply about what higher education stands for should take a hard look at the chart. The lesson embedded in this chart teaches that it is fine to employ a system, such as the BCS, where the revenue is rigged in favor of some, at the expense of others, regardless of who performs better. That is the last lesson we should be teaching our students," said Kustra.

The chart, assembled by Alan Fishel, an attorney for parties battling the BCS' iron-hold on college football, can be found here

"This chart tells only a slice of the full story of the BCS's discrimination. The revenue discrimination is even greater when deserving teams are excluded from major bowls," said Kustra.

Boise State, which plays in the Western Athletic Conference, is projected to start the 2010 season ranked among the top five in most rankings. That may give the Broncos a chance to test If a non-BCS team from a non-automatic qualifying conference can play for a national championship if undefeated. It would be the highest any non-BCS team has started a season in the rankings.

" The BCS system is designed to make it virtually impossible for teams from outside of the six Automatic Qualifying Conferences or Notre Dame to ever win the national championship. Further, the Automatic Qualifying Conferences are guaranteed 60 percent of the spots in the major bowls, and barring a highly aberrational situation (such as occurred last year for the first time), those conferences, along with Notre Dame, for all practical purposes will be given at least 90 percent of the major bowl spots each year," said Kustra.

"In college basketball, where such revenue and access discrimination does not exist, a playoff decides the national champion. But at the highest level of college football, the BCS cartel, which benefits from such discrimination, prevents a playoff from occurring."

Kustra noted that BSU has gone undefeated IN four of the past six Regular seasons "yet never even came close to having an opportunity to compete for the national championship. How did all of those games, and all of those perfect records, count under the BCS? In fact, in two of those four undefeated regular seasons, Boise State was foreclosed from even playing in a major bowl."