According to Ryan Beckwith, Bakersfield College’s athletic director, the California Community College Athletic Association is working on improving the playoff system for football.

As of right now, only four teams from the Southern California Football Association are granted a chance to compete in the playoffs.

“When I went to the coaches’ meeting originally in the fall, they talked about doing away with the playoff system the way it is because right now it’s not really a playoff,” Beckwith said. “It’s a subjective thing. It’s kind of like you’re chosen to be in the playoffs.”

Last year, BC hosted the Golden Empire Bowl without the Renegades participating because they were playing at Mt. San Antonio College in the first round of the playoffs.

The attendance for the Golden Empire Bowl was 302, a major difference to where it would have been at if the Renegades were involved.

Back in August, Clifford and Bradford Insurance Agency stated that they would not be sponsoring the game unless the Renegades are in it.

According to Beckwith, Wes Bradford, owner of Clifford and Bradford, was planning on sponsoring the game.

“That was one thing that we didn’t put into the media, but Wes and I had talked about it and he was going to do it,” Beckwith said.

Beckwith, though, knows that it is tough for them to put the game together without knowing that the Renegades will be involved, something that may be undecided until after the regular season is completely over.

“It’s tough, and I think something that the CCCAA is evaluating right now is the selection process and the way they do that,” Beckwith said. “But that, unfortunately, is out of our hands at this point. It’s completely on the CCCAA.”

Beckwith said that a major talking point of the coaches’ meeting was BC’s chances of hosting a bowl.

“That was kind of the consensus that I heard is that [BC] has to have a bowl,” he said. “If there’s going to be a bowl, and Bakersfield qualifies to be in it, they should be hosting.”

Beckwith said that because of the attendance that BC draws to games, not just bowl games, it is a major reason why they are considering a change.

“It’s just like how we’re hosting the baseball-softball state championships,” Beckwith said. “We were told in the CCCAA – it was our first year doing it – it was the best it’s ever been.”

When asked what the difference was financially if BC didn’t play in the bowl game at Memorial Stadium,” Beckwith said, “The CCCAA gets the majority of the money when we host a bowl game … it’s not about making money, it’s about hosting it and being the school that everyone wants to be at.”

Back in 2010, though, BC’s athletic department offered Mt. SAC $20,000, half of which would come from Clifford and Bradford, if they would come to Memorial Stadium to play the game instead.

Then-athletic director Jan Stuebbe stated financial reasons for the offer.

“If we have that game up here, we’re going to get a big crowd. I know in that particular game, we get 60 percent of the profits, and the last time we played Mt. SAC in the playoffs we had 12,000 people here,” Stuebbe said in an article in the Dec. 1, 2010 issue of the Renegade Rip. “We estimated having 10,000 people here and that would make us $100,000 and we would get $60,000, so I said I would offer them $10,000 to come up here.”

Right now, a team must finish at .500 or better to be eligible for a bowl. BC’s team finished 4-6.