Synopses & Reviews
With all-new reporting, a completely revised and updated second edition of the bestseller that takes down the Great Satan of college sports: the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).
Every college sport picks its champion by a postseason tournament, except for one: Divsiion I-A football. Instead of a tournament, fans are subjected to the Bowl Championship Series, an arcane mix of polling and mathematical rankings that results in just two teams playing for the championship. It is, without a doubt, the most hated institution in all of sports. A recent Sports Illustrated poll found that more than 90% of sports fans oppose the BCS, yet this system has remained in place for more than a decade.
Building upon top-notch investigative reporting, Wetzel, Peter, and Passan at last reveal the truth about this monstrous entity and offer a simple solution for fixing it. Death to the BCS: Totally Revised and Updated is brought up to date to cover the 2010-2011 season, listing which teams were screwed by the BCS (such as TCU), how much money college football left on the table by not having a playoff (based on 2011 tax filings), and how the calls for the abolition of the BCS grew even louder this past year. The book also includes findings from interviews with power players, as well as research into federal tax records, congressional testimony, and private contracts. The first book to lay out the unseemly inner workings of the BCS in full detail, Death to the BCS is a rousing manifesto for bringing fairness back to one of our most beloved sports.
Review
"The most thoroughly researched, reasoned and readable argument to date for college football reform." -Time
Review
"The plan put forward by Wetzel, Peter and Passan is certainly the strongest BCS-alternative to date. It is imperative that other sports journalists, college administrators and football fans read Death to the BCS." -Brian Frederick, The Huffington Post
Review
"Alternately brilliant and scary. You will put the book down sweaty, angry and wishing you could do something to change the system." -Nando DiFino, The Wall Street Journal
Review
"The book accurately and diligently points out what people have known for years: The BCS is fundamentally flawed, at times a joke, and very controversial." -Chris Dufresne, Los Angeles Times
About the Author
"The most thoroughly researched, reasoned and readable argument to date for college football reform."
-Time
"The plan put forward by Wetzel, Peter and Passan is certainly the strongest BCS-alternative to date. It is imperative that other sports journalists, college administrators and football fans read Death to the BCS."
-Brian Frederick, The Huffington Post
"Alternately brilliant and scary. You will put the book down sweaty, angry and wishing you could do something to change the system."
-Nando DiFino, The Wall Street Journal
"The book accurately and diligently points out what people have known for years: The BCS is fundamentally flawed, at times a joke, and very controversial."
-Chris Dufresne, Los Angeles Times
"Required reading for college football fans."
-Tony "Mr. College Football" Barnhart, Atlanta Journal- Constitution