The BCS officially reached an agreement with ESPN for the Worldwide Leader to broadcast the BCS games for the next five years. The deal is reportedly worth about $125 million a year for a grand total of $500 million.

This move will put the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl all on cable television, while the Rose Bowl will continue to air on ABC until 2014, thanks to a prior agreement with the folks at Disney.

I mentioned earlier that I think this is the point of no return for the BCS, as this move will effectively shut down any and all talk on the WWL about a playoff, while demoting the most important games of the year to cable television, leaving 22 million homes unable to watch. This was all about money and what’s best for the people that run the BCS, and has nothing to do with the good of the game.

Unfortunately, I think this is proof that there is no one in the NCAA or BCS that is looking out for the good of the game. They are all looking out for their own best interests, which certainly are not about the integrity or the promotion of the game itself.

CNBC’s SportsBiz writer Darren Rovell goes a step further and asks why the NCAA is even willing to let this cash cow be in the control of external influences. Says Rovell:

“College football is under the jurisdiction of the NCAA along with every other sanctioned varsity college sport. Yet, the Division I college football postseason is under the jurisdiction of 11 NCAA Division I conference commissioners, Notre Dame’s athletic director and a presidential oversight committee (comprised of the likes of Notre Dame, Pitt, Penn State, and Oregon to name a few) simply known to the masses as the BCS. It must be all about the money, right? Why is it, then, Myles Brand’s NCAA team is fit to run point for a March Madness that fetches approximately $400 Million per YEAR in CBS rights fees alone, more than the entire Fox BCS contract?”

We, as sports fans, have lost all control over sports, and are now completely at the mercy of the Worldwide Leader. If ESPN wants a playoff, we’ll get a playoff. If they want to play one singular bowl game between the two teams they find the most deserving, that’s what we’ll get.

If they have a game to be aired, they consider Mike Patrick qualified to call it. That’s the kind of network we’re talking about here. They thought “Who’s Now” was a good idea.

ESPN has successfully completed its complete takeover of college football. When they win the rights to March Madness, they will put that on cable as well. Perhaps then there will be an appropriate outcry.

They killed hockey (with some help from hockey), they put Monday Night Football on cable, and they have taken over sports reporting to a level that if they don’t report it or confirm it first, they don’t acknowledge it.

They hired Rick Reilly and are paying him $10 million for Christ’s sake.

Do you really want these people in control of college football any more than they are?

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