The BCS: Something Doesn't Add Up

Politico ran a story late last week, that former congressman and Oklahoma quarterback J.C. Watts has been on the BCS payroll as a lobbyist to the tune of $620,000 over the last five years. While paying over $100,000 a year to a year seems questionable given that after all it's just a game... right? But its when looking at the NCAA's BCS revenue distribution report form last month that some questions are raised. From 2004-2009 the BCS has brought in between $122,000,000 and $148,000,000 annually, but according to the documentation 100 percent of the revenue has gone to schools or conferences. So where is the lobbying money coming from? If it is coming from hidden BCS coffers, why is it not reflected in the NCAA's document? Or is it coming from the big conferences under the auspices of being from the BCS? It's hard to imagine the eight conferences that made just $200,000 to $225,000 green-lighting an amount that's more than half of their share to a lobbyist. With reports that $200,000 (as of 2001?) go to the BCS poll operators and $120,000 going to Mr. Watts, that's at least $320,000 a year that is not accounted for per the NCAA documentation. If the NCAA's document is accurate, then can we assume that the big six conferences are paying $20,000 each to protect their cash cow? If they are and are doing it under the auspices of the BCS, they're attempting to present a unified front that clearly doesn't exist.

According to opensecrets.org the ACC, Mountain West and SouthEastern Conferences all employ or have employed lobbyists in the last ten years.