BCS Hires Former Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer

There’s a war going on in college football: how should the top team be selected? As of now, it’s via the Bowl Championship Series, or BCS, which ranks teams based on the “USA Today Coaches Poll, Harris Interactive College Football Poll and an average of six computer rankings.” Fans of college football are getting more and more annoyed with this system, and are vying for a playoff system similar to NCAA basketball’s massively popular “March Madness” tournament.

The BCS has come under increased fire, last week in the form of Twitter backlash, as the @InsidetheBCS official Twitter feed was torn to shreds. As Advertising Age‘s Ken Wheaton noted, “If you know your product is universally loathed, Twitter is not the place for you.”

Now, the BCS has hired some high profile PR help to clean up the mess, in the form of Ari Fleischer Communications, “a sports public relations firm” headed by the former press secretary for President George W. Bush.

Meanwhile, a number of college football teams have also employed their own PR firms to ensure they are painted in the best light for the BCS. Is it just us, or should the college football championship be settled on the field, and not in the PR strategy room?

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