The Bowl Championship Series had long been criticized for deciding college football's championship through polls, conference politics, and a lucrative bowl structure rather than a national playoff. But the system's most serious crisis came through the Fiesta Bowl scandal, which brought the federal government’s attention to more than competitive fairness. Investigators examined allegations that Fiesta Bowl officials had made improper political contributions, provided excessive executive compensation, reimbursed questionable expenses, and issued large, interest-free loans that were not repaid. Those practices raised questions about whether a bowl operating under tax-exempt status had violated the rules governing nonprofit organizations.
The scandal became a potential threat to the entire BCS structure because the Fiesta Bowl was both an individual legal entity and part of the larger postseason system. The U.S. Justice Department and other authorities considered whether to audit the BCS bowls, their finances, and even the conferences and universities connected to them. Possible consequences discussed in the controversy included loss of tax-exempt status, enormous back-tax liabilities, civil penalties, and even forfeiture proceedings in an extreme scenario. Although the passage does not establish that the BCS was ultimately declared an illegal cartel or that the most severe penalties were imposed, the Fiesta Bowl abuses transformed the playoff debate from a dispute about rankings into a question about governance, money, nonprofit accountability, and whether the sport's championship system had been insulated from normal public scrutiny.
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