Ari Fleischer Discusses New Work Helping To Promote The BCS

Fleischer Says BCS Detractors Have Not Presented Viable Alternative

The BCS has hired Ari Fleischer Communications (AFC) for promotional work, and AFC President Ari Fleischer in an e-mail said "politics was a walk in the park compared to sports," according to John McKinnon of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Fleischer served as the Press Secretary to former President George W. Bush, and said of his new work in sports, "People REALLY care about this stuff." He added that the "one difference between politics and the college football debate is that supporters of a national playoff haven't coalesced around an alternative." Fleischer: "Opposing the BCS is easy -- organizing a real playoff is really hard" (WSJ.com, 11/23). More Fleischer: "Playoff advocates have had an easy ride where they have never been called on to explain exactly how they would create an alternative. ... 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." But Playoff PAC co-Founder Matthew Sanderson, whose committee has "organized an anti-BCS messaging and lobbying effort," said, "This hire says a lot about the state of college football. The BCS needs a hired mercenary to sell the system. Even a respected professional like Mr. Fleischer will have a hard time selling an arbitrary system that a recent Sports Illustrated poll shows is not supported by 90[%] of college football fans" (POLITICO.com, 11/23).

RIGHT MAN FOR THE JOB? In L.A., Mark Medina writes it is "probably not asking too much" for Fleischer to promote the BCS, when under Bush he had to "present controversial policies such as the Iraq war, the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and No Child Left Behind in the most positive light" (L.A. TIMES, 11/24). NBCNEWYORK.com's Josh Alper wrote, "Unpopular college football bureaucracy hires man who was the mouthpiece for an unpopular president without making him the least bit more popular? That's one way to go, although you have to wonder if there's anything that any PR flack could do to fix the BCS" (NBCNEWYORK.com, 11/23). SI's Stewart Mandel: "I love that the BCS, the most unpopular entity in sports, hired a guy who worked under the most unpopular president in history" (TWITTER.com, 11/23). YAHOO SPORTS' Matt Hinton wrote it "might seem counterintuitive to hire the spokesman of an administration that ended in a state somewhat below 'tattered' to un-tatter an unpopular system that's come under more and more fire each successive year of its existence." But Fleischer was "integral in selling the war in Iraq, and he was smart enough to exit the building before it self-destructed soon after." He is one of the "very few guys who got out of the Bush years relatively unscathed." If AFC is "partially responsible" for keeping MLB's "head above water over the last few years, too, maybe there's some hope" for the BCS (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 11/23).