It’s strange to think of a world without the Bowl Championship Series. Not that it’ll happen. Stories like this one, in which its filthy corruption – even by the general standards of big-time university sports – is once again described, always conclude by saying, as this one does, “the end is near.” But the BCS sustains itself the same way other filthy American enterprises – for-profit colleges, for instance – sustain themselves, by using our tax dollars to lobby politicians.
The American university – whether through sports or through Kaplanization – has become a perfect money vector for white guys who understand how lucrative non-profit labels and tax subsidies can be.
Not that it’s rocket science. All you have to do is take the money. If your conscience allows you to take the money a non-profit or tax subsidy status provides, you and your friends can become incredibly wealthy. All you need, somewhere along the line, is to pick up the idea that the intended recipients of the money – students, schools, charities – are a problem, an obstruction … an embarrassment, really. Give them some pennies to shut them up, lobby hard, and rake it in.