Fiesta Bowl Can Stay In BCS Without Penalty

The announcement hit today that the Fiesta Bowl will not be kicked out of the BCS. In addition, it will have to make some changes like having an annual independent audit and appointing two college administrators to its board. In other words, it pays no real penalty here.

After all, enterprises as large as the Fiesta Bowl should be having independent audits done annually. The fact that it wasn't having independent audits done just means that it was being egregious in the past and is now going to be brought under reasonable oversight measures. It probably should have some kind of college administrator or two on its board given that the bowl largely exists to stage a football game between to college teams.

What's that you say? What about the $1 million fine?

That million-dollar fine will go towards youth charitable causes in the state of Arizona. Guess what? As a non-profit entity, giving money to charity is what the Fiesta Bowl is supposed to do anyway. After all, it has a .org website and states that it "promote(s) volunteerism, athletic achievement and higher education." Forcing a non-profit to donate money to charity is not something that should ever have to be done.

Besides, for that fine to be a penalty, it would mean that the bowl would need to cut out things it had planned on doing with that money otherwise. Well, with CEO John Junker and his roughly $600,000 salary gone along with the end of his lavish spending sprees, the bowl might be cutting its expenses by around $1 million this year anyway. If it's not, then it certainly is going to make up for a good chunk of that "fine" by losing Junker and his boondoggles. Besides, the bowl just got over $2.9 million from UConn alone for unsold tickets. That covers the fine three times over.

Also, again keep in mind that putting money towards charitable causes is what the Fiesta Bowl should be doing anyway because of its status as a non-profit organization.

This is just the BCS's ruling though. The NCAA still has a task force studying the issue of whether the bowl gets to keep its license, without which it can't hold a game. That task force, natually, is a paragon of independence and impartiality. We can rest assured that its final decision will be fair.