Friday, December 04, 2009

How The BCS Can Boost Its P.R Spin Battle

Read the post below or find it at The Huffington Post.

The reputation of college football's Bowl Championship Series (BCS) is so bad that the group finally went out and hired a PR firm to help. They recruited former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who runs a communications company with prominent sports clients.

But not before they debuted a new Twitter feed (@insidethebcs), which almost instantly became the mockery of the sports universe, and a new web site (PlayoffProblem.com), which makes health-care-reform astroturfing seem sophisticated in its messaging.

The BCS is so uniformly disliked by college football fans and media alike that it feels like the sports PR challenge of the decade -- even Mike Vick could say "I'm sorry" and move on.

Meanwhile, the BCS system is locked into place for years to come (with plenty of financial incentive and ESPN's marketing power behind it). However, that is the single-biggest advantage that the BCS has going for it: The system isn't changing.

So I guess I'm not quite sure why they felt the need to try actively to change its image or popular perception; no matter how the media might howl, fans will tune in en masse for the title-game, and they ultimately accept the result. Few beyond the most passionate opponents in the media (or directly screwed-over fans) remember BCS system debacles from years past.

Nevertheless, the BCS has decided to mount a p.r. offensive. They can certainly try, and I'm willing to stipulate to the effort.

My problem, then, is with their tactics.

As long as you're going to attempt to win a p.r. battle, they are going about it in all the wrong ways -- knee-jerk Twitter accounts, like they are checking the social-media box, and ridiculous fake Web sites.

Per Fleischer's expertise, they are erroneously trying to use political tactics to solve an apolitical problem. Sports fans are not like citizens engaged in a political battle... and the sports media and political media landscapes and levers couldn't be more different.

But that's not to say that there aren't tactics the BCS could try. I'm not guaranteeing anything except a greater chance of success than the current efforts.

And so as the college football regular season reaches its climax this weekend and the BCS system prepares to generate the title-game pairing, here are four suggestions I would make to Fleischer and the BCS to start the repositioning:

(1) Rebrand. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean something like AOL's rebrand du jour -- adding a punctuation mark at the end -- although "BCS?!" as the official brand would be winningly self-deprecating. But like AIG, "BCS" is tainted beyond repair, with no positive brand equity to salvage. They need a new name that tacks directly into the strongest position of their detractors: Call it "The Playoff."

(2) Don't be defensive. Stop trying to claim that the current system is ideal; it's just the system we have. Acknowledge the problems. But recognize that while critics may be noisy, they haven't actually affected any change. Most fans enjoy a good title-game pairing and, unless they are fans of a spurned team, largely overlook the side controversies that pock-mark the season.

(3) Co-opt the critics. Currently, the formula that determines the BCS (and the two teams that would play for the national title) comprises coaches, computer data-crunching and human "experts." All the inputs have their flaws, but one way to quiet the critics is to let them in the door: Leverage a new partnership with ESPN to import their experts and also incorporate the "BlogPoll," a weekly poll that includes 120 leading college football bloggers. (Disclosure: I am a voter in the BlogPoll.)

(4) Include the fans. By far, the most important solution. Give fans a stake in the process and their sense of ownership will overwhelm their minor irritation with teams that are left out. Embrace the openness, inclusion and empowerment that fans have come to demand through Facebook, Twitter and blogs. Set up a simple, social registration system that lets any fan have a say. And make it a meaningful (25 percent) part of the formula.

Sorry, playoff fans: The BCS system of matching two teams for the national title, leaving plenty of other worthies out, is not going to change anytime soon. But what can be changed -- the name, the decision-making process, the involvement of the fans -- is not just powerful, but well within the power of the BCS to fix. The BCS was pillioried for its exclusivity. Its solution lies in inclusiveness.

-- D.S.

PS: The Daily Beast's Bryan Curtis has an interview with Fleischer and some analysis of his own. Well worth your time to read -- I'll give Curtis a ton of credit; he is openly anti-playoff, a rare position among media folks. And his arguments are well-articulated, even if I disagree with them.

4 comments:

The Poobah said...

This is all well and good Dan, but parts 3 and 4 of your proposal make the BCS even more confusing.

A huge problem everyone has with the BCS system is that the top teams are not decided on the field, but through polls and computers. What good is it to just add more cooks to the kitchen? Even with all those voters, TCU/Cincinnati/Boise St would have been screwed this year.

But overall I agree with your point. They have to do something. They are a laughingstock.

Unknown said...

Honestly, the problem with idea #4 - giving the common fan a significant stake in the process - is that while current poll voters do have their form of biases, they aren't as extreme as letting crazed fans loose and voting their favorite team number one, and then you wind up reinforcing the 'good old boys' system that the BCS currently stands for. It's the kind of thing that would shoot them in the face eventually.

Bryan said...

Until you drop your whole 'include the fans' component, I'm not getting behind these ridiculous ideas. Newsflash: Fan voting DOES NOT WORK and has worse biases than the media. You want proof? Look at the all-star voting every year.

And your precious "Blog Roll" isn't an answer either. Every blogger could be 'bought off' by the special interest the instant is changing from 'meaninless fun' to 'part of the formula.'

josh said...

I like the idea of incorporating the BlogPoll, but ESPN isn't known for putting sport above profit, so I'd rather their analysts not be remotely involved in the selection process. A fan poll would be inherently biased against an upstart school, which is the biggest problem the system is already facing from the congressional badgering and whatnot.

I know the system isn't going anywhere, I just think it's time they broke down the division between AQ & non-AQ schools. So yes, that means giving Troy a BCS berth. But if you do that for just a few years, they'll catch up- just look at what Cincinnati has done with BCS status.