What’s next, playoff tea parties?

I’m at a point where I confess that Clay Travis is one of those people whose reasoning is beyond my feeble mental ability to grasp.  He’s pumped up about PlayoffPAC, and bully for him on that.  But here’s why:

… The goal is to utilize social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to spread the PAC’s message. To accomplish this, the PAC has a board made up of six volunteers, among them two attorneys and several others with Capitol Hill experience. In many ways, the six are reflective of what could be the BCS’ most difficult combatants, intelligent and engaged fans who are better experienced with the tools of new media than the BCS itself.

And to me that’s the most interesting part of the new Playoff PAC, the degree to which the fan movement against the BCS is moving beyond message board and talk radio grumblings. The BCS believes their foe is disorganized and unintelligent, I think the reality is much different. Many people from all walks of life are beginning to operate the utilize the instruments of governance to draw attention to the current situation.

If I’m reading that correctly, Travis starts with a hideous assumption:  that an effort to “utilize the instruments of governance to draw attention to the current situation” is a good thing.  And who’s he kidding with that innocuous phrase, anyway?  Guys like Orrin Hatch aren’t interested in drawing attention to the BCS.  They’ve already done that, with little, if any, effect.  They want to force action on a playoff for D-1 football, whether by legislative threat or by a Justice Department antitrust investigation.

It’s kind of hard to see what Twitter and Facebook are going to do with that.

The naïveté on display here is impressive.  “The BCS believes their foe is disorganized and unintelligent, I think the reality is much different.” It is, but not for the reason Travis believes.  This isn’t some silly PR battle between angry fans and the suits from the Big Six conferences, the bowls and ESPN.  Ultimately, this is about money and who’s going to control its distribution.  That’s a battle to which the fans are a complete irrelevancy.

The BCS isn’t assessing the intellectual level of those in favor of a playoff – though, with people such as Joe Barton in the mix, it’s a valid consideration – it’s protecting its turf.  If there’s nothing concrete threatening that, it’ll be content to let all the new media wanking about a playoff go on forever.