BCS Under Fire

[Colonel_Reb]

Yet another challenge to the Bowl Championship Series format is on the way, just more than a week after the crowning of another controversial champion.

http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/9044210/BCS-system-gets-a nother-legal-challenge
<DIV ="in_info_">
<DIV ="in_info__content">
<DIV ="in_info__content">Joining attacks already launched by a congressman from Texas and the attorney general of Utah is a bill introduced Friday by a California congressman that will prohibit the receipt of federal funds from schools with a football team unless the national championship game is the culmination of a playoff system.


The Miller Plan (H.R. 599), introduced by Rep. Gary Miller of California, is modeled after Title IX legislation in which the federal government forced the NCAA to give equal money to women's sports.


The bill requires NCAA schools participating in the Football Bowl Subdivision to implement a playoff system to determine a champion within three years of enactment. It allows current bowls to be incorporated into the playoff system and does not dictate the number of teams that participate.


"While the current Bowl Championship Series system was created to identify a broadly accepted national champion, its implementation has shown that the only way to accurately determine a champion is to create a playoff system that is open to all teams," Miller said in a statement. "There is no reason the NCAA should continue to disadvantage certain schools when every other major college sport's championship is settled through a playoff."


Anthony Davis, the former Southern California and pro running back, agrees. "Whatever it takes to get their attention, whether it's Title IX or threatening to take away the (federal) dollars, fine, whatever,'' Davis said. "We have to wake these people up. It's unbalanced and unfair.''


Davis, the star of the Trojans' 1972 and 1974 title teams, is the spokesman for BCSReform, a grassroots alliance of fans and ex-players who have come together to lobby Congress to pass Miller's bill. The group is pushing for a 16-team playoff.


"Frankly, we believe it will take an act of Congress before fans see playoffs,'' BCSReform.org states on its Web site. "Fortunately, President Barack Obama has expressed his desire for a college football playoff. With the help of college football fans across America, we hope to persuade Congress to pass a 'playoff law' that President Obama can sign.''


The time is now, Davis said. He called the 2008 season the "defining moment'' of the 10-year-old BCS format. "There has to be serious change. This year showed everything that's wrong with the bowl series.''


He said Utah's Sugar Bowl defeat of an Alabama team ranked No. 1 earlier in the season "blew me away. After that, none of the games were significant. As a former player, in the back of your mind, you have to feel something is taken away from the bowl series.''


The BCS missteps, he said, started with Texas being shut out of the BCS title game in favor of Oklahoma. "Texas beat Oklahoma. Looking at the Texas-Ohio State game, Texas didn't want to be there. The BCS took the sails out of them.''


And his former Southern Cal team that dismantled Penn State in the Rose Bowl? "The Utah win took away from their victory,'' he said.


The Miller Plan joins a bill introduced into Congress by Rep. Joe Barton of Texas also aimed at forcing the NCAA to adopt a playoff.


In a statement, Barton said the bill "will prohibit the marketing, promotion and advertising of a postseason game as a 'national championship' football game, unless it is a result of a playoff system. Violations of the prohibition will be treated as violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act as an unfair or deceptive act or practice.''


Barton is the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees sports. Barton said in his statement the BCS "consistently misfires'' on determining who is the national champion.


Another congressman who wants to abolish the BCS format, Democrat Edolphus Towns of New York, the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has said he will convene a hearing and invite college football officials.


In Utah, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff wants the same thing. Because 13-0 Utah was left out of the national title picture for the second time in five years, he is investigating the BCS for possible violation of federal antitrust laws.


Shurtleff says the BCS system puts Utah at a disadvantage because it is a member of a conference â€â€￾ the Mountain West â€â€￾ without an automatic bid to the BCS bowl games.


Speaking to reporters before the BCS title game, BCS coordinator John Swofford, commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, said college football leaders believe the BCS format is in compliance with federal antitrust laws.


The BCS is a billion-dollar business. According to a special report in the Orange County Register in 2007, that includes lobbying money. The Register reported that a Washington D.C. lobbying firm run by former Oklahoma congressman and Sooners quarterback J.C. Watts received more than $500,000 between 2003 and 2007 from a fund created by the four BCS games.


The BCS also received $82.5 million a year from FOX for television rights until ESPN outbid FOX last year with a $600 million deal covering the 2011 through 2014 BCS series.Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[Electric Slide]

Wow when I was first reading this I thought it was some sort of joke. Now it seems like these congressmen are actually serious. The federal government has NO business regulating college sports, whether it's title IX or with the BCS. Any college should have the right to join whatever governing body they wish to. Each governing body should make their own rules.

I do not see how the federal government can regulate private organizations like this, whether or not schools receive federal funds. If the federal government sets this precident, does that mean we can push for legislation to change other things. Can they make a law that says professors have to teach both sides of an issue in the spirit of the "fairness doctrine." Ideally I would like that, except it would probably only be used against religious universities to teach atheism and offer sexual studies and women's studies majors.

Either way, Title IX does not even mention intercollegiate athletics of the term "NCAA" specifically. The way it's applied to NCAA sports, they would have to do the same thing for NAIA and other smaller sports governing bodies, as well as nearly ALL campus activities, right down to the recycling club.

I find this very hard to believe, that someone would really try to regulate a private organization that colleges willingly join.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Electric, I hear you man. The fedgov has been regulating private organizations for many years, and especially since the 1960s. They interfere with how car makers produce their vehicles. They keep us from being able to associate with who we want to by making integration the law of the land (they did this with restaurants by abusing the interstate commerce clause). Now with Obongo ready to assume command of the freedomharvesting machine, I think we'll see some kind of fedgov intrusions into FBS football. He's already said he wants a playoff. Anyone who stands in the way will be labeled "racist" in the end. Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[Guest]

That's right, ladies and gentlemen...pay no mind to our nation's failing economy or rapidly changing racial demographics. Don't worry about the anti-White discriminatory practices of our universities or corporations. Forget about why we're sending our troops all over the world to fight. Your elected officials have real issues to worry about, like college football.

Of course, there should be a playoff but, in no way, should this be a government affair. It's a joke that they've even concerned themselves with this issue.

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

That's right, ladies and gentlemen...pay no mind to our nation's failing economy or rapidly changing racial demographics. Don't worry about the anti-White discriminatory practices of our universities or corporations. Forget about why we're sending our troops all over the world to fight. Your elected officials have real issues to worry about, like college football.

Of course, there should be a playoff but, in no way, should this be a government affair. It's a joke that they've even concerned themselves with this issue.

excellent post, sir.

you, Colonel Reb, and Electric Slide are spot on.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

<div>McLEAN, Va. (AP) - The Mountain West Conference is pushing for an automatic annual entry into the Bowl Championship Series' postseason lineup, USA Today reported on its Web site Monday night.</div>



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The newspaper said that presidents and chancellors of the league's nine schools, along with commissioner Craig Thompson, will press for a meeting with BCS coordinator John Swofford, to discuss an automatic berth into the BCS.


"I would not be optimistic," Thompson said. "As I explained to them (the Mountain West presidents), it's a series of legal contracts among 11 conferences, four bowls, two TV partners with yet another TV partner coming in. I would not see much of a relaxation."


Conference champion Utah finished second in the AP Top 25, earning 16 of 65 first-place votes after it finished an undefeated season by beating Alabama 31-17 in the Sugar Bowl.


But the Utes had to force their way in to the four big-money games, which also include the Fiesta, Orange and Rose Bowls.
<div></div>


Only champions of the six BCS conferences - the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC automatically qualify.


Two other successful Mountain West teams this season, TCU (11-2) and BYU (10-3), had to settle for lesser bowls. TCU beat then-undefeated Boise State in the Poinsettia Bowl and BYU lost to Arizona in the Las Vegas Bowl.


Utah was the first team from one of the five non-BCS leagues to qualify for the BCS a second time. The Utes beat Big East champion Pittsburgh 35-7 in the Fiesta Bowl after an undefeated 2004 season.


[url]http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/9139570/Report:-Mountain- West-pushing-for-BCS-auto-bid?FSO2&amp;ATT=MA [/url]


Even though I want the BCS abolished now, I'd like to see the MWC get an auto-bid, seeing as how they are the whitest FBS conference in the country. Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Utah lawmakers call for playoffs


[url]http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/9201488/Utah-lawmakers-ca ll-for-football-playoff-system?FSO2&amp;ATT=MA [/url]
<div>SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Utah's state legislature is calling for a playoff system to determine college football's national champion after an undefeated University of Utah was shut out of the national title game for the second time in four years.</div>



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With University of Utah football players on hand, the state senate adopted a resolution Monday it wants sent to President Barack Obama urging the NCAA to abandon the Bowl Championship Series in favor of a playoff system.


Utah went 13-0 and was the only unbeaten team in the country, but finished No. 2 behind Florida in The Associated Press Top 25. In the final USA Today Coaches' poll, the Utes were fourth.


Under the BCS, champions from the six major conferences â€â€￾ the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC â€â€￾ are guaranteed a spot in a BCS game. Notre Dame and schools from the other five conferences can only earn a spot in a BCS game if they finish the regular season rated high enough under a formula that relies on two human polls and six computer rankings.


The Mountain West Conference, which also had TCU (No. 7) and BYU (No. 25) in the poll, is pushing to get an automatic bid to the BCS. The Associated Press asked the BCS to stop using its poll in December 2004, after undefeated Auburn and Utah were left out of the BCS title game.


Utah's lawmakers contend the BCS formula is flawed and gives schools from the major conferences an unfair advantage that would make it impossible for a school like BYU to win the national title, as the Cougars did in 1984.


"You look at what happened this year, the University of Utah did everything physically possible to win that championship," said Senate Majority Whip Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City. "Unless they are arbitrarily put in to that championship game, they will never have the chance."


However, despite calls from fans and President Obama himself, a playoff is unlikely anytime soon. The BCS recently signed a four-year, $125 million deal with ESPN to televise the BCS national championship game, and the Orange, Fiesta and Sugar bowls, starting January 2011 and running through the 2014 bowls.


The current deal with FOX runs out after next season. The Rose Bowl has its own separate TV deal with ABC that runs through January 2014.


"You know, when this comes down to it, it's all about money. The fact is the BCS alliance controls large dollars, and to not be able to be in that group is not right," Jenkins said. "There's time to hold a playoff. You just got to do it."


Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner and BCS coordinator John Swofford has said the majority of university presidents and athletic directors oppose an expansive NFL-style playoff for major college football and that the BCS is in compliance with federal law.


Utah politicians are undeterred, though. Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is investigating whether the BCS is violating federal antitrust laws and Gov. Jon Huntsman has suggested having Florida and Utah play an extra game at a neutral site, which is highly unlikely.


Shurtleff and other leaders have taken some flak for using state resources on college football, but they say it's worth it.


"When you talk about the millions of dollars that potentially come to our universities through these programs, I hardly think it's frivolous," said Senate Majority Leader Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse.


The Utah House is expected to approve Senate Joint Resolution 11 later this week.Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[Colonel_Reb]

<div>More BCS Scrutiny, this time the inept and corrupt U.S. Senate is involved</div>
<div></div>
<div> [url]http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/9379862/Senate-reviewing- antitrust-issues-involving-BCS[/url]</div>
<div></div>
<div>WASHINGTON (AP) - Everyone from President Barack Obama on down to fans has criticized how college football determines its top team. Now senators are getting off the sidelines to examine antitrust issues involving the Bowl Championship Series.</div>



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The current system "leaves nearly half of all the teams in college football at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to qualifying for the millions of dollars paid out every year," the Senate Judiciary's subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights said in a statement Wednesday announcing the hearings.


Under the BCS, some conferences get automatic bids to participate in the series, while others do not.


Obama and some members of Congress favor a playoff-type system to determine the national champion. The BCS features a championship game between the two top teams in the BCS standings, based on two polls and six computer ratings.


Behind the push for the hearings is the subcommittee's top Republican, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. People there were furious that Utah was bypassed for the national championship despite going undefeated in the regular season.


The title game pitted No. 1 Florida (12-1) against No. 2 Oklahoma (12-1); Florida won 24-14 and claimed the title.


The subcommittee's statement said Hatch would introduce legislation "to rectify this situation." No details were offered and Hatch's office declined to provide any.


Hatch said in a statement that the BCS system "has proven itself to be inadequate, not only for those of us who are fans of college football, but for anyone who believes that competition and fair play should have a role in collegiate sports."


In the House, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, has sponsored legislation that would prevent the NCAA from calling a football game a "national championship" unless the game culminates from a playoff system.Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[Colonel_Reb]

<div>MWC goes to Congress over BCS</div>
<div></div>
<div> [url]http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/9413876/Mountain-West-sen ds-BCS-proposal-to-Congress?FSO2&amp;ATT=MA [/url]</div>
<div></div>
<div>The Mountain West Conference has submitted a proposal to Congress with a plan to reform the BCS.</div>

The conference sent a letter to university presidents Wednesday detailing the plan and asking for support.


"We believe it is in the best interest of all Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) university presidents to support reform of the current system," Thomas Buchanan, chair of the Mountain West Conference Board of Directors, said in the letter. "As educators, one of our primary objectives is to ensure that our students graduate with a firm understanding of the principles of fundamental fairness and equitable treatment."


This isn't the first time the BCS system has been questioned on Capitol Hill. As Buchanan mentions in his letter, the President and Vice President and members of Congress, among others, have criticized the system and voiced their opinions in favor of changing it.


"We should reform the system before even more goodwill is lost and further resources are expended defending a system that the public overwhelmingly views as 'rigged' and 'corrupt,'" he told college presidents.


Among the suggested reforms in the proposal:



[*]Eliminating the guaranteed BCS bids for major conferences;



[*]Putting BCS voting in the hands of a committee rather than pollsters and computers;



[*]Creating an eight-team playoff system to decide the national champion;



[*]Equal revenue sharing among the conferences.Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[indianwhite]

The BCS sure has a big mess to clean up, if that ever happens. And to go against the proposal is to be called a racist, pure nonsense. I'd hate to see the real outcome on this one. Let's just brace for the inevitable.

 

[Mike]

I support the BCS for the simple fact that I never want to be associated as being on the same side of anything as comrade Pelosi or Frank.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

<div> </div>

<div>BCS might adopt parts of MWC proposal

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - The BCS could decide to adopt parts of the
playoff plan proposed by the Mountain West Conference, even as the
group seems unlikely to scrap its current system of determining college
football's champion.

A buttoned-up BCS finished its last day of meetings Wednesday
in the city that will host the championship game in early 2010. Only
BCS coordinator John Swofford emerged briefly to speak to reporters a
day after the group heard a case for changing to an eight-team playoff
from the current single-game championship format.</div>


It's unlikely
that the MWC's proposal will bring about any major changes to the BCS's
format, despite pressure from the major-college conferences largely
left out of the big-money bowls, as well as legislators and government
officials including President Barack Obama.

Of the MWC proposal
that he termed "a fundamental change," Swofford said he agreed with MWC
commissioner Craig Thompson's assessment that the plan could be
considered in one or two of its parts even if the playoff system is
shot down by the college presidents.

"A selection committee?
Yes," Swofford said, of a performance-based group replacing the
computers and polls of the current formula.

But the sweeping change of a playoff system, he said, couldn't be separated out.

"Ultimately
it will be in the presidents' hands," Swofford said. In June, the BCS
commissioners are scheduled to pass any changes on to the presidents
group when it meets.

For those preferring a playoff, the BCS
"will always have some controversy," he said, indicating that part of
the proposal was a likely non-starter, although the lack of playoff is
the chief objection raised by opponents.

Asked if the BCS commissioners felt there was any significant legal issue, Swofford said, "No, we don't."

Utah
attorney general Mark Shurtleff is investigating whether the BCS
violates federal antitrust laws and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) asked for
the BCS to be put on the agenda of the Senate Subcommittee on
Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights.

The University
of Utah was undefeated last season, but denied a shot in the BCS title
game between two teams with at least one loss.

Obama publicly endorsed a playoff system, but hasn't taken any action.

The
MWC's proposed changes are significant, starting with the criteria for
selecting eight teams for a playoff by a 12-person committee that would
discard the polls and computers used to determine the BCS standings.

The
BCS system, Swofford said, "has been successful in a lot of ways,"
including here in Pasadena where "you can see the connectedness of the
Rose Bowl and the BCS."


http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/9484814/BCS-considering-p arts-of-MWC-proposal?FSO2&amp;ATT=MA Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[Colonel_Reb]

<div>Texas Rep. Joe Barton likens BCS to Communism.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Tackling an issue sure to rouse sports fans,
lawmakers pressed college football officials Friday to switch the Bowl
Championship Series to a playoff, with one Texas Republican likening
the current system to communism and joking it should be labeled "BS,"
not "BCS."</div>

John
Swofford, the coordinator of the BCS, rejected the idea of switching to
a playoff, telling a House panel that it would threaten the existence
of celebrated bowl games. Sponsorships and TV revenue that now go to
bowl games would instead be spent on playoff games, "meaning that it
will be very difficult for any bowl, including the current BCS bowls,
which are among the oldest and most established in the game's history,
to survive," Swofford said.

Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, who has
introduced legislation that would prevent the NCAA from calling a game
a national championship unless it's the outcome of a playoff, bluntly
warned Swofford: "If we don't see some action in the next two months,
on a voluntary switch to a playoff system, then you will see this bill
move."

After the hearing of the House Energy and Commerce
Committee commerce, trade and consumer protection subcommittee,
Swofford told reporters: "Any time Congress speaks, you take it
seriously."

Yet it is unclear whether lawmakers will try to
legislate how college football picks its No. 1 before the first kickoff
of the fall season. Congress is grappling with a crowded agenda of
budgets, health care overhaul and climate change, and though President
Barack Obama favors a playoff, he hasn't made it a legislative priority.

College football's multimillion-dollar television contract also could be an obstacle.

The
BCS's new four-year deal with ESPN, worth $125 million per year, begins
with the 2011 bowl games. That deal was negotiated using the current
BCS format. While ESPN has said it would not stand in the way if the
BCS wanted to change, the new deal allows the BCS to put off making
major changes until the 2014 season.

Jonathan Turley, a
constitutional law expert at George Washington University, said the
legislation could result in a court challenge.

"This is a rare
effort by Congress to prevent people from using what is a common
description of sporting events," he said in a telephone interview. The
legislation, he said, "may run afoul of the contractual agreements
between parties, wiping out benefits that have already been paid for by
companies."

Barton, the top Republican on the committee, said at the hearing that efforts to tinker with the BCS were bound to fail.

"It's like communism," he said. "You can't fix it."

He quipped that the BCS should drop the "C" from its name because it doesn't represent a true championship.

"Call it the 'BS' system," he said to laughter.

The
current system features a championship game between the two top teams
in the BCS standings, based on two polls and six computer rankings.

Under
the BCS, some conferences get automatic bids to participate while
others do not. Conferences that get an automatic bid â€â€￾ the ACC, Big
East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC â€â€￾ get about $18 million each, far
more than the non-conference schools. Swofford is also commissioner of
the ACC.

"How is this fair?" asked the subcommittee chairman,
Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois, who has co-sponsored Barton's
bill. "How can we justify this system ... are the big guys getting
together and shutting out the little guys?"

"I think it is fair, because it represents the marketplace," Swofford responded.

Craig
Thompson, commissioner of the Mountain West Conference, which does not
get an automatic bid, called the money distribution system "grossly
inequitable."

The MWC has proposed a playoff and hired a
Washington firm to lobby Congress for changes to the BCS. The proposal
calls for scrapping the BCS standings and creating a 12-member
committee to pick which teams receive at-large bids, and to select and
seed the eight teams chosen for the playoff. The BCS has previously
discussed, and dismissed, the idea of using a selection committee.

The
four current BCS games â€â€￾ the Sugar, Orange, Rose and Fiesta bowls â€â€￾
would host the four first-round playoff games under the proposal.

Valero Alamo Bowl chief executive Derrick Fox, representing
the 34 members of the Football Bowl Association, said that a playoff
"is rife with dangers for a system that has served collegiate athletics
pretty well for 100 years."

But Gene Bleymaier, athletic director
at Boise State University, noted that his school's football team went
undefeated several times, yet never got a chance to play for the
national championship under the BCS.

Asked by Rush whether
Congress should intervene, Bleymaier responded, "The only way this is
going to change is with help from the outside."

In the Senate,
Utah Republican Orrin Hatch has put the BCS on the agenda for the
Judiciary's antitrust subcommittee this year, and Utah's attorney
general, Mark Shurtleff, is investigating whether the BCS violates
federal antitrust laws.

Fans were furious that Utah was bypassed
for the national championship despite going undefeated in the regular
season. The title game pitted No. 1 Florida (12-1) against No. 2
Oklahoma (12-1); Florida won 24-14 and claimed the title. [url]http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/9524674/Lawmaker-compares -football%27s-BCS-to-communism?FSO2&amp;ATT=MA [/url]

Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[Colonel_Reb]

<div>BCS presidents reject MWC playoff plan

Bowl Championship Series presidents have rejected the Mountain West Conference's playoff plan.</div>
The conference proposed an eight-team playoff system that would allow
greater access to the national championship game to teams outside the
six most powerful leagues. The BCS presidential oversight committee
rejected the concept during a teleconference Wednesday.

"There
was no overall support for the proposal, although some conferences were
interested in considering certain elements of it in the future â€"
particularly those related to revenue, access and governance of the BCS
arrangement," said University of Oregon president David Frohnmayer, the
outgoing committee chairman.http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/9726836/BCS-presidents-reject-Mountain-West-playoff-plan

 

[Colonel_Reb]

<h1>Senate will hold BCS antitrust hearing next week</h1>



























<div id="r_info"><h2 title="Associated Press"> Associated Press</span></h2><h2 title="Associated Press"></span>http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/9518258/Senate-will-hold-BCS-antitrust-hearing-next-week</font></h2>

</div>






<div id="story-tools-wrapper">http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/9518258/Senate-will-hold-BCS-antitrust-hearing-next-week











<div> </div></div><div>WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate plans to hold a hearing next week
looking into antitrust issues surrounding the Bowl Championship Series.
It's the second time this year that Congress is shining a light on the
polarizing system college football uses to crown its national champion.</div>
The hearing will be held next Tuesday in the Judiciary Committee's
subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights,
according to a posting on the committee's Web site.

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the subcommittee's top Republican
and the lawmaker who sought the hearing, did not return telephone and
e-mail messages left at his office Tuesday.

In an essay for
Sports Illustrated being released Wednesday, Hatch wrote that the
Sherman Antitrust Act prohibits contracts, combinations or conspiracies
designed to reduce competition.

"I don't think a more accurate
description of what the BCS does exists," Hatch wrote. He noted that
six conferences get automatic bids to participate in series, while
others do not. The system, he argued, "intentionally and explicitly
favors certain participants."

Citing the money generated by the
BCS, Hatch wrote, "If the government were to ignore a similar business
arrangement of this magnitude in any other industry, it would be
condemned for shirking its responsibility."

When asked about
Hatch's comments, BCS coordinator John Swofford said the BCS' lawyers
have "worked diligently to ensure that the BCS is in compliance with
the law."

Football fans in Hatch's state were furious that Utah
was bypassed for the national championship despite going undefeated in
the regular season. Hatch noted that President Barack Obama and others
have called for the BCS to be replaced with a playoff system.

"One thing is clear: No changes will take place if Congress does nothing," Hatch wrote.

Rep.
Joe Barton of Texas, the top Republican on the House Energy and
Commerce Committee, has introduced legislation that would prevent the
NCAA from calling a game a national championship unless it's the
outcome of a playoff. At a May hearing, Barton warned that the
legislation would move forward "if we don't see some action in the next
two months" from BCS on switching to a playoff system.

David
Frohnmayer, president of the University of Oregon and chairman of the
BCS Presidential Oversight Committee, expressed a preference Tuesday
for the current system, saying the proposals for a playoff system
"disrespect our academic calendars, and they utterly lack a business
plan."
Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

i abhor the BCS ... but seriously, with all the problems this country faces, doesn't Congress have more important things on its agenda than regulating a football game or two? jeez!

mayhap they should investigate the citizenship status of the not-my-President, or stop illegal immigration and affirmative action, or investigate/indict each other, or better yet completely resign and get a new batch of less experienced criminals in their positions. surely even the Mob couldn't hijack the country as throughly as these pieces of crap.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

You sure would think so, wouldn't you Jimmy? It upsets me that this is what the Senate chooses to spend its time on. Meanwhile, a trillion dollar spending bill doesn't even get debated or even read by most senators. Our government is a joke and a farce.

 

[Freethinker]

Couldn't agree with you gentlemen more. This just goes to show the government wants to be involved in EVERY facet of society and our lives. Of course, everything they touch goes to sh*t but that doesn't stop Washington from trying again and again.

 

[jaxvid]

You guys are right of course but Congress doesn't function as a governing body anymore, it's just a front for the real decision makers the powerful lobbyists, corporate media, big money donors, and the NGO's that write the legislation and buy the votes. Congree is just a dog-and-pony show to give people a sense that they still have some control.

They spend all their time "debating" issues that will garner attention from the sheeple merely as a side show. That's why the BCS situation and steroids and other silly issues are before Congress, to make it look like they actually do something. The average DWF will ignore the socialist takeover of the country and the anti-white policies but his ears perk up when the subject is FOOTBALL (cue angels singing).

 

[Europe]

Didn't the Pac 10 and Big 10 have a monopoly on the Rose Bowl. They didn't give other colleges a chance to play in the Rose Bowl, but nobody said anything. They should go back to the old bowl system, when on New Years Day, sometimes there were 5 teams with a chance at the title. That's more exciting. It wasn't perfect, but even a playoff isn't perfect. Why turn it into the NFL. The college football regular season is the most meaningful in American sports, unlike the NBA, college basketball or Hockey. When Michigan lost to Appalacian Sate, that was a national championship game for them.If there was a playoff, they would have just said who cares, we can make the playoffs still.

The gov't ignores the legal and illegal immigrant problem , but obsesses over football. They are stupid. Why are they allowing India and Mexico to take over the US? I didn't realize that I moved to India or Mexico. If I wanted to live with Indians or Mexicans, I would move there. Notice I haven't moved there.

 

[whiteCB]

Europe how could you not want a playoff? Utah goes undeafted twice, Boise St in 2006, and they have nothing to show for it but a pat on the back. The BCS is a monopoly between the 6 major conferences. No matter how poorly their conference plays it is guaranteed a bid to a BIG $$$ bowl game. Meanwhile no matter how well a team in the MAC, WAC, or whatever other "non-BCS" conference plays they have to grind it out, finish undefeated, and hope for the best. That my friend is a ludacris system.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

<div>MWC officials say it might take 5 years to fix the BCS

http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/9838856/MWC-commish:-Fixing-the-BCS-could-take-5-years

HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) - The top administrator of the Mountain West
Conference said Wednesday that it could take five years to change the
way college football championships are decided.</div>
Acknowledging the MWC was still sore about undefeated Utah being shut
out of last year's national championship game, Commissioner Craig
Thompson vowed to keep lobbying Congress, Bowl Championship Series
administrators and college football's 10 other conferences for a
revamped playoff system.

"We feel a change needs to be made and inclusion needs to be broader," he said.

In
the meantime, Thompson said conference board members decided not to
penalize athletes by balking at signing a broadcasting contract and
walking away from the existing postseason bowl system. The Mountain
West on July 8 became the last conference to sign a broadcasting deal
with ESPN for the 2011-14 seasons.

"We couldn't take our kids
voluntarily out of the chance to play in a BCS bowl game," Thompson
said during a state-of-the-conference address to media members at a Las
Vegas-area casino resort. "As much as we would like to see change in
the system, it is the only system."

At issue are the number of
automatic bids awarded to conferences for postseason play in top-tier
bowls, and the money those appearances bring.

Six conferences - the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC - get automatic BCS bids, plus about $18 million each.

The
Mountain West, which doesn't get an automatic bid, calls the system
unfair. It has proposed an eight-team playoff featuring first-round
play in the four top current BCS bowls - Sugar, Orange, Rose, Fiesta.
Winners would advance to a championship.

In a telephone
interview, BCS administrator Bill Hanwiener acknowledged criticism of the
current system, which picks two top BCS teams for a championship game
based on two polls and six computer rankings.

"We know the BCS is not perfect," Hanwiener said from Kansas
City. "But it is the best proposal that has been presented that meets
the needs of all 11 conferences."

Last year's championship
matched 12-1 Florida against 12-1 Oklahoma, while undefeated Utah beat
Southeast Conference powerhouse Alabama, 31-17.

"The fact is, six
conferences had individual bowl deals before the BCS," Hanwiener said of
the system that began in 1998. "The BCS has to offer them at least as
good a deal as they had before, or they wouldn't participate."

Hanwiener
added that the other five conferences can earn an automatic
qualification, depending on their teams' performances over a four-year
span.

Thompson vowed to "fight within and challenge within, and
try to coerce and convince and cajole ... our fellow 10 conferences to
change the system over the next couple years."

Thompson, the only
commissioner the Mountain West has had since the conference started in
1998, said he was proud of the rising level of play by the nine
conference schools - TCU, BYU, Utah, Air Force, UNLV, Colorado State,
New Mexico, San Diego State and Wyoming.

He said the MWC would
continue its $265,000 contract with a Washington lobbying firm to keep
the BCS issue before Congress, which held hearings on the matter May 1.

But
he said MWC efforts weren't connected with calls by Utah state Attorney
General Mark Shurtleff and Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch for
investigations of whether the BCS violates federal antitrust laws.

"I
don't know what those people are going to do," Thompson said, adding
that he felt that as league commissioner the best way to elbow into the
BCS was for MWC teams to win games.

"If you perform and you win
games and you're playing quality opponents and you're beating the
Oklahomas, the Alabamas, the UCLAs, the Michigans, and all the people
we've beaten," he said, "that should be our statement."
Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Orrin Hatch is asking Obama to investigate BCS

Maybe I should go see him tomorrow while he's in town and ask him where his priorities are. Ex. socialization of health care, cap and trade, so called hate crimes bill. What a joke!

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4582814

Hatch seeks Justice probe of BCS</font>


<hr size="1" width="100%" noshade="noshade">

Associated Press



</font>
WASHINGTON -- Shortly after winning last year's presidential election,
Barack Obama said he was going to "to throw my weight around a little
bit" to nudge college football's Bowl Championship Series to move to a
playoff system.

On Wednesday, Sen. Orrin Hatch took him up on that.
Hatch asked the president to launch a Justice Department investigation
into the way the BCS -- a complex system of computer rankings and polls
that often draws criticism -- crowns its national champion.
"Mr. President, as you have publicly stated on multiple occasions, the
BCS system is in dire need of reform," Hatch, R-Utah, wrote in a
10-page letter, obtained by The Associated Press.

Hatch, who held a hearing on the BCS in July, told Obama that a "strong case" can be made that the BCS violates antitrust laws.
Under the BCS system, some conferences get automatic bids to
participate in top-tier bowls while others don't, and the automatic bid
conferences also get far more of the revenue. Hatch's home state
school, the University of Utah, is from the Mountain West Conference,
which does not get an automatic bid. The school qualified for a bid
last season but was bypassed for the national championship despite
going undefeated.
The system "has been designed to limit the number of teams from
non-privileged conferences that will play in BCS games," he wrote.
Hatch said that the BCS arrangement likely violates the Sherman
Antitrust Act, because, he argued, it constitutes a "contract,
combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in
restraint of trade or commerce," quoting from the law.
He said that the system "artificially limits the number of
nationally-relevant bowl games to five. The result is reduced access to
revenues and visibility which creates disadvantages to schools in the
non-privileged conferences." Hatch is the top Republican on the Senate
Judiciary's subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer
rights.
The senator said that the hundreds of millions generated by college
football "are hardly trivial sums," given that many schools use such
revenue to fund things like other athletic programs.

The White House declined to comment. The Justice Department and BCS officials had no immediate comment.
Hatch's letter comes a few days after the BCS released its first
standings of the year. And on Monday, a group of college football fans
launched the Playoff PAC, with the hope of electing more lawmakers who
will pressure the BCS to switch to a playoff system. Several lawmakers
have introduced bills this year aimed at forcing a playoff system, but
none of the bills has moved.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

BCS re-shuffles the stacked deck in the interest of "fairness"and fails miserably...


SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The Bowl Championship Series released its
formula for determining how conferences, such as the Mountain West, can
earn an automatic bid to the big-money bowls.

The BCS disclosed
Thursday it has three ways to measure conference strength. They are the
ranking of the highest-ranked team from a conference in the final BCS
standings, the final regular-season computer rankings of all the teams
in a conference and the number of teams from a conference in the top 25
in the final BCS standings.

These are compiled over a four-year
period, and the conferences are measured against each other.

Six
conferences -- the Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, SEC and Pac-10 --
have automatic bids that are contractually bound through the 2013
season.

Another conference could earn an automatic bid if it hits
certain targets in all three categories.

For the first two
categories, the goal for leagues such as the MWC and the Western
Athletic Conference is to be ranked among the six best conferences in
the country.

A points system is used in the third category that
takes into account how each team in a conference is ranked at the end of
the season. Using those points, each conference is given a grade, and
for a conference to earn an automatic bid to the BCS, its grade needs to
be about 50 percent.

"By putting out the data, we're hoping we
can uncomplicate it," BCS executive director Bill Hancock said.

The
BCS is in the middle of a four-year evaluation period. Hancock said the
MWC is making a push to earn automatic-bid status for the 2012 and '13
seasons. Automatic bids for the next four-year cycle of the BCS, which
will start in 2014, have not been determined

Utah and TCU both
earned BCS bids the past two seasons.

"The Mountain West has had
two great years," Hancock said. "They have a chance."

The
conference rankings for the past two seasons were not released, but the
general information is available and no doubt those inclined to crunch
numbers will be trying to figure out where each conference stands
entering next season.

Hancock stressed that the rankings can
change dramatically from year to year because conferences are being
judged against each other.

So another big year by the Mountain
West in 2010 -- when TCU, BYU and Utah are again expected to have strong
teams -- is far from guaranteed.

While the conference rankings
the BCS uses to determine how another league can earn an automatic bid
have been spelled out for years, BCS officials have been criticized by
not giving details of how the formula is put together and what exactly
needs to be done to qualify.

Hancock said the BCS released the
formula to try to become more transparent.

The BCS also released
its revenue distribution for the past bowl season, which was obtained by
the AP in January.

The five non-automatic qualifying conferences
-- the MWC, WAC, Sun Belt, Mid-American and Conference USA -- split a
record $24,723,000. TCU and Boise State received BCS bids last season,
marking the first time two teams from leagues outside the big six played
in the marquee bowl games since the BCS was implemented in 1998.http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5126561

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Utah's Attorney General continues to attack the BCS

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5763731


WASHINGTON -- Utah's attorney general met with Justice Department
officials this week to discuss a possible federal investigation into
college football's Bowl Championship Series.

Attorney General Mark
Shurtleff is investigating the BCS for possible antitrust violations
and is hoping to get the Justice Department to do so as well.


"You get the DOJ behind [an investigation], and the BCS will finally say, 'OK, we'll go to a playoff.'

"Â￾</span>
<cite>-- Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff</cite>


<blockquote>
</blockquote>


"They are
doing their due diligence," Shurtleff said in a telephone interview
Thursday, a day after the meeting. "They had done their homework."

Shurtleff
said department officials did not commit to conducting an
investigation. He said among those at the meeting was Gene Kimmelman,
chief counsel for competition policy and intergovernmental relations in
the department's antitrust division.

Justice Department declined to comment on the meeting.

In
January, in a letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who had asked for an
antitrust review, the department said the Obama administration was
considering several steps that would review the legality of the BCS. The
department said it was reviewing Hatch's request and other materials to
determine whether to open an investigation into the BCS and possible
antitrust violations.

Several lawmakers and many critics want
college football to adopt a playoff system to determine the teams that
play in the championship game.

BCS executive director Bill Hancock
said Thursday it was "hard to imagine a bigger waste of taxpayer money
than to involve the government in college football."

Under the
BCS, the champions of six conferences have automatic bids to play in
top-tier bowl games, while the other conferences don't. Those six
conferences also receive more money than the other conferences.

Last
year, the state legislature in Utah adopted a resolution calling for a
playoff system to determine college football's national champion after
an undefeated Utah was shut out of the national title game for the
second time in four years.

Next season, Utah will be moving into one of the conferences with an automatic bid. But Shurtleff said that isn't deterring him.

"This
has never been for me to get the University of Utah bragging rights,"
he said. If anything, Shurtleff argued, Utah's move gives him more
credibility with attorneys general from other states he is seeking to
recruit for his anti-BCS crusade.

He said that getting the Justice Department to launch an investigation is critical to the effort.

"You get the DOJ behind one, and the BCS will finally say, 'OK, we'll go to a playoff,' " Shurtleff predicted.


Edited by: Colonel_Reb