ESPN has “yet to lock in dates for four of the five BCS games” in '12, including the national championship, “due to the reigning uncertainty over the NFL's work stoppage,” according to Stewart Mandel of SI.com. The BCS National Championship Game is “tentatively scheduled for Jan. 9 but could be moved to Jan. 7 or 10.” The Sugar (currently Jan. 2), Orange (Jan. 3) and Fiesta (Jan. 4) “could all be moved back a day as well if the NFL winds up having to cancel early-season games and reschedule them later.” ESPN Senior VP/College Sports Programming Burke Magnus said, "There are two dates in flux, Jan. 2 and 9. If there's a pushback of the (NFL) regular season, it could put 'Monday Night Football' games on those nights where, under a normal schedule, we wouldn't have games on that night.” Only the Rose Bowl, scheduled for the afternoon of Jan. 2, “remains locked into a set date.” Mandel noted though BCS officials “accounted for the possible conflict when they originally signed their current deal with ESPN back in 2008, this week's NFL court developments have only caused more uncertainty.” ESPN “doesn't require much lead time to adjust its lineup, but the bowls themselves face a litany of logistical headaches the longer the delay.” One possibility being discussed is to have the Superdome “hold the Sugar Bowl and championship game within a five-day span.” BCS Exec Dir Bill Hancock “did not say whether a deadline had been set to finalize dates.” Magnus insisted that “under no circumstance” would one of the bowls “be played the same night as an NFL game and moved to another channel” (SI.com, 4/27). Sugar Bowl CEO Paul Hoolahan, attending the annual BCS conference commissioners meetings in New Orleans, said of finding concrete dates, “Our hope and expectation to that is to come out of these meetings with some better clarification. But I’m not sure that it is possible at this stage” (NOLA.com, 4/27).
A TALE OF TWO SIDES: Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff last week announced plans to file a lawsuit against the BCS “for being an illegal monopoly,” but Hancock said, “The system is as strong as ever.” Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott added, “I think the BCS system and college football is extremely healthy.” Scott: “Putting the political grandstanding aside, there are issues and scandals in every major sport. Look at baseball, football, look across the board.” In L.A., Chris Dufrense writes, “The crazy part is everyone is right. College football is a mess and in ‘great’ shape. It’s the paradox of a BCS system that has been fabulously flawed since 1998.” Meanwhile, the NCAA licensing arm today is meeting with Fiesta Bowl officials, but it “won’t make any sort of ruling until a BCS task force investigating the situation rules, probably in late May.” Dufrense notes the Fiesta Bowl, "it’s believed, is going to survive and be allowed to stay in the BCS rotation" (L.A. TIMES, 4/28).
