The BCS has hired Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush’s former Press Secretary, to help it with its tattered image with College Football fans. Fleischer runs Ari Fleischer Communications, his firm that specializes in dealing with sports organizations; they will mount a campaign aimed at helping the BCS with the overwhelming pressure to scrap the current system which determines who plays for what and where.
Whether you’re a diehard College Football fan or just one of those that watches at Bowl time, you’re probably in the same boat; you hate the BCS. Who hasn’t heard a complaint about the unfairness of the BCS ranking system and longed for a legitimate playoff system in College Football?
The BCS uses polls and a computer ranking system to determine who at the end of the season will play for the National Championship. Four major bowls makeup the BCS rotation that hosts the Championship game every year. Ari Fleischer feels that the BCS isn’t getting a fair shake. Fleischer said in the Politico:
“Playoff advocates have had an easy ride where they have never been called on to explain exactly how they would create an alternative. There is tremendous division among playoff advocates,” said Fleischer. “While the BCS has its share of critics, once people see both sides of the issue, they will see why the system has its great support.”
Fleischer’s got a tough job ahead of him, College Football fans overwhelmingly are opposed to the BCS and its current method of determining a champion. Fleischer should be no stranger to defending and spinning for an unpopular figure. He was President George W. Bush’s Press Secretary during most of his first term; however the BCS is certainly more disliked than the former President.
What kind of signal does the BCS’s hiring of Ari Fleischer send to College Football fans everywhere? The BCS is here to stay, it just needs to be resold to the College Football world. Why else would you hire a firm like Fleischer’s?