Non-automatic BCS qualifiers get shortchanged even in record payout

[BAMAPHIN 22]

A news release issued Monday by the Bowl Championship Series was worthy of Wall Street number crunching for all of its sizable holes.

"Non-AQ (automatic qualification) conferences earn record share," is the subheadline on a revenue distribution announcement.

Combined, the five conferences that don't automatically send their football champions to a BCS game earned a record $24 million. The Mountain West Conference and Western Athletic Conference landed BCS berths. Distribution by a predetermined formula is listed as MWC, $9.8 million; WAC, $7.8 million; Conference USA, $2.8 million; Mid-American Conference, $2.1 million; and Sun Belt Conference, $1.5 million. The WAC keeps all of its $4.5 million as an at-large qualifier.

The release leaves it to others to do this math: the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big East, Big 12 and Pac-10 each earned $17.7 million. The Big Ten and Southeastern Conference, with two BCS qualifiers each, hauled in $22.2 million apiece.

"It's still grossly inequitable," MWC commissioner Craig Thompson said Monday. "I'm certainly a proponent of a participating conference receiving the same (payment) as the automatic qualifying conferences."

http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_14267160


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[Rafiki]

I think it's pretty much fair because of the contributions in revenue that the non-AQ contributes compared to the AQ conferences.

Then again, to those who say team x couldn't compete in an AQ conference: give the non-AQ some BCS money for facilities and expansion, and some BCS recruits and they could.