Collegiate Times

With Virginia Tech emanating the identity of a football school for ages -- and having advanced to consecutive Orange Bowls -- it should come as little shock that President Charles Steger monitors the controversial Bowl Championship Series.

Though, the heavy hand Steger has wielded in shaping the BCS' future may come as some surprise.

Appointed by Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford, Steger had represented the ACC in BCS television contract negotiations for nearly a year, working on the $500 million deal that was completed with ESPN in November. The agreement grants BCS games to ESPN from January 2011 through January 2014.

Following another meeting over school budgetary issues, Steger sat down to briefly chat about the lighter things in life -- the college football postseason.

Collegiate Times:

I'm assuming you probably saw (Barack) Obama's (negative take on the BCS and urge for a college football Division I-A postseason tournament) during the Nov. 3 Monday night football halftime show... Do you think he was onto something?

Charles Steger:

It all depends on your point of view. For the schools that are in the BCS, obviously, it's a lucrative deal. ... From the point of view of a fan watching football on television, I can see how they would like to have a playoff and whatever else, like they do in basketball. Except when you go to the basketball things, they're on the weekend (and) there are 10, 12, I don't know how many games going on.

Whereas, going to a football bowl is a very expensive proposition for the average family. They can't go to the quarterfinals and then semifinals. They're going to be able to go to only one. And then (there's) the logistics of moving the football team around. It's not like a basketball team. (When the) football team goes, we have truckloads of equipment and 140 people, not to mention all the other fans and everything else. And I think the logistics would have to be changed pretty dramatically so that the playoffs would occur at stadiums of the institutions, and not in the cities where the current bowls go.

And then you .... change the economic equations for the cities, you know, Tampa or Miami. Having us come for a bowl pumps millions of dollars into the local economy. So, if you're from the point of view of a city that hosts the bowl, it's not a good idea. If it's from the point of view of a fan who's just going to watch it on TV, it probably isn't an appealing thing. But the bottom line is, we've just signed a four-year contract, and nothing's going to happen until that's played out.

CT:

(Oregon President) David Frohnmayer, the current chair of the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee, returned an e-mail to ESPN.com saying that he thinks Obama really enjoys the sport in part because of its compelling regular season. Do you think the Division I-A college football postseason is as compelling as college basketball's?

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