3. College football may be more successful and popular than it’s ever been. But the empty seats at the Sugar Bowl on Tuesday night and the vast swatches of unfilled real estate at the Orange Bowl on Wednesday night -- a friend texted me to ask if that was Clemson-West Virginia or a Marlins game -- indicate that the BCS has work to do. If I ran the Orange Bowl, I would suggest that ACC champion move to at-large status in the next BCS contract so that I could pick both sides of my matchup.
Look Ivan, I like your writing. I really do. But to suggest that the reason the Orange Bowl was half-empty was because of the conferences is stupid. Clemson and WV have HUGE followings. But those HUGE followings all have kids that went back to school this week. They all have jobs where Christmas vacations wrapped up on Sunday and Monday. They have a life that does NOT include traveling to south Florida on a Wednesday freakin' night after the holidays are over.
Your problem is NOT the ACC. Your problem is the BCS that wants every game to get their own prime-time viewing slot, and aren't willing to start *before* New Year's Day. When you stretch New Year's Day bowl games into midweek after New Year's you get crappy attendance because everyone has to go back to work/school/real life.
Get the bowl games back on New Year's Day where they are supposed to be. And if you can't squeeze them all in on that day, then play them *before* and not after so that the fans can actually travel while on vacation. Don't blame the ACC for a problem that *your* corporate overseers created in their quest for a monopoly on viewer eyeballs.
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