What a crazy story. I'm guessing Jerry Jones and the Cotton Bowl have been on the phones all day to BCS officials.
The Fiesta Bowl will be asked to justify its inclusion in the BCS after organizers for the Arizona game fired president and CEO John Junker for "an apparent scheme" to reimburse employees for political contributions and "an apparent conspiracy" to cover it up.
The Fiesta Bowl released a scathing internal report Tuesday.
The reimbursements, listed as at least $46,539, are an apparent violation of state campaign finance laws and the charter that allows the Fiesta Bowl its nonprofit status. The Arizona attorney general's office is conducting a probe of the matter.
The BCS reacted swiftly, saying it would undertake an investigation of its own to "consider whether the Fiesta Bowl should remain a BCS bowl game or other appropriate sanctions." LINK
Some of its other findings:
The Fiesta Bowl had covered $13,086 in expenses connected with one employee's wedding in Kansas City. Junker bestowed on others such gifts as iPads, gift cards and, most bizarre, bullion. He purchased (and billed to the bowl) some $22,000 worth of gold and silver coins.
This is not a good day for the BCS. The Sugar and Orange Bowls have also recently come under withering criticism for the excessive compensation of executives and extravagant expenditures. Sugar Bowl executive director Paul Hoolahan's 2009 income of $645,386 was just 40K or so shy of Junker's. Last June, according to a complaint filed by a committee called Playoff PAC, the Orange Bowl treated its executives and college athletic directors to "Summer Splash," a four-day Royal Caribbean cruise featuring several stops in the Bahamas ... but no business meetings. (Spokespeople for each of the bowls deny any impropriety.)
To its credit, the Fiesta Bowl has already adopted what it calls "sweeping reforms" to "improve oversight and transparency." SI.com will detail those and other aspects in a story on Wednesday. LINK
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Originally Posted by jaymo76
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