UCLA’s No-Win Scenario

On Saturday’s episode of “As the Bruin World Turns”: The financial wizard of UCLA’s athletic department sits alone in front of a television set, nervously watching the football game against Washington. With a calculator in one hand and a remote control in the other, he cheers . . . for the Huskies. Strictly business, you know.

Reality television? Not really. But, in a bizarre byproduct of the alliance between bowl games and the major college conferences, a victory by the UCLA football team Saturday could cost UCLA’s athletic department as much as $600,000.

If Oregon and Washington win their final two games, each would finish 10-1. Oregon beat Washington, so the Ducks would win the Pacific 10 Conference championship and play in the Rose Bowl. Washington could then be awarded one of two at-large bids to a bowl championship series game, and the Pac-10 schools would evenly divide a $6-million bounty.

If UCLA defeats Washington, the Pac-10 can kiss that $6 million goodbye.

Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen acknowledges the perception of a potential conflict of interest between the UCLA football team and the UCLA athletic department accountants.

“It is, on paper. But that’s for athletic directors and conference commissioners to worry about,” Hansen said. “No player is going to worry about what a win might cost the conference or cost UCLA.”

The players would share in none of that revenue, so to them the issue is much ado about nothing.

“We don’t follow it, because we don’t see any of it [the money],” UCLA offensive lineman Brian Polak said. “I don’t mean this to sound selfish, but when it doesn’t affect us, it’s not of concern to us. We want to win regardless.”

And, while he acknowledges his department could use the money, UCLA Athletic Director Peter Dalis uncharacteristically blunt in his assessment of the situation.

“We’re never better off losing a game,” he said.

This $600,000 quirk is brought to you by the major conferences’ commissioners, who struggled mightily to figure out how to generate more money while avoiding a playoff system and satisfying their longtime patrons, the organizers and sponsors of bowl games. The result: The bowl championship series, which Dalis, a playoff supporter, calls “too whimsical for me.”

The BCS computer considers team records, strength of schedule, polls and a series of computer rankings, then spits out its own rankings. The top two teams in the BCS rankings play for the mythical national championship, this season in the Orange Bowl.

The three other bowls in the BCS system--Rose, Fiesta and Sugar--then receive designated conference champions not ranked first or second by the BCS computer. The BCS also selects two at-large teams to play in those three other bowls, which pay $13.5 million to each participating team.

The conference commissioners capped the payout to a second BCS team from any given conference to $6 million, Hansen said, so the Pac-10 teams could split $2.5 million even if Washington is not selected. In that case, a UCLA victory Saturday could cost the school up to $350,000.

There is no guarantee Washington, even at 10-1 and ranked in the top five, would be awarded an at-large BCS berth. And, should Notre Dame win its remaining games, a 9-2 Fighting Irish team would get an at-large bid.

Indiana University professor Murray Sperber calls the UCLA dilemma an unintended but not unexpected product of a big-time college sports system hungry for money. “It’s another one of the weird anomalies of the college sports business,” Sperber said.

“UCLA might do better by losing, but within the big picture of the athletic department I don’t think it really matters. But it is a very vicious system.”

Indeed, a $600,000 payout would account for less than 2% of last year’s athletic department budget of $32.7 million. Then again, that payout would take care of Rose Bowl rent, for which UCLA paid $522,000 last year.

“It would be important, but it’s unbudgeted. It would be like found money,” Dalis said.

UCLA Coach Bob Toledo said only Xs and O’s are on his mind: “It’s obviously a big business, and there’s a lot of money involved. But it’s also a competitive thing. You want to win, and you don’t care what’s at stake moneywise.”

If the Bruins win Saturday, UCLA would almost certainly play in either the Aloha or Oahu bowls. If Washington does receive an at-large BCS bid, the Bruins might play in the Sun Bowl in El Paso.