Utah s Orrin Hatch and Wisconsin's Herb Kohl announced Wednesday that the Senate Judiciary's antitrust subcommittee will hold hearings on the college football's postseason format.
Yes, that means you, Bowl Championship Series.
"The BCS 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," a joint statement read.
No date was given for the hearings, but the statement also said: "Sen. Hatch will introduce legislation to rectify this situation."
Hatch, the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, called the BCS "un-American" in January. He repeated that claim on Wednesday.
"As I have said before, the BCS system is anti-competitive, unfair and un-American," Hatch said. "I am looking forward to exploring what legislative remedies might be applied to fix a system that violates our nation's antitrust laws by placing non-BCS universities at a serious competitive disadvantage."
What could become of this? As Tim Stephens of College Gridiron 365 points out: "Congressional hearings in 2003 led to format changes. An additional bowl was added and access rules for the conferences without automatic bids were relaxed."
BCS chairman John Swofford, the commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, said in January that his group is ready for the challenge.
"Obviously, we've attempted to make every effort to make certain that the main structure of the BCS is within the antitrust laws. And we're comfortable, our legal people are comfortable, that indeed the BCS structure indeed is."
Isn't there other things much more important going on in American economics that these elected officials should be concerned with?
Also, what about the people who think the BCS, the college bowl system and the regular season are exciting and doesn't need fixing? I guess were stuck watching meaningless regular season college basketball games.
Posted by: T-Bone | March 26, 2009 at 08:46 AM
The criminals running the US govmtnet are Un-American too, but that doesnt stop em.
Posted by: me | March 26, 2009 at 09:21 AM
What's unamerican is the government's new found habit of stepping in and "rescuing" businesses, institutions, or whatever. Sure the BCS needs fixing, but Uncle Sam is not the one to do it.
Posted by: BubbaGene | March 26, 2009 at 09:37 AM
It very well might be a violation of antitrust laws. What has happened is that certain conferences have rigged the rules to make sure they get the money. Hatch is obviously mad that Utah was the only undefeated team and didn't even get a chance to play for the championship. They proved, by beating Alabama - a #1 team in the BCS polls not long before - that they were capable of beating anyone. They just didn't get a chance because teams that don't belong to certain conferences are automatically and systematically excluded.
Posted by: Dave | March 26, 2009 at 04:04 PM
why can every other ncaa footbal division have playoffs but not 1a -- pathetic
Posted by: Marc | March 26, 2009 at 05:34 PM
"why can every other ncaa footbal division have playoffs but not 1a -- pathetic"
What's more pathetic is the total lack of interest in every other NCAA football division which is why they have a playoff.
Why take something totally unique to sports and get rid of it? The NCAA football playoffs will make college football a lot less interesting.
Posted by: T-Bone | March 27, 2009 at 07:19 AM
Glad we got our priorities straight.
Orrin Hatch is a fucking gangsta- hes like a 65 year old McLovin.
Posted by: Phil Fulmer's Mom | March 27, 2009 at 02:07 PM
Very well won't be a violation of anti trust rules. Every FBS (god i hate that) conference gets a piece of the BCS money. Every team is theoretically eligable to make a BCS bowl. The fact Utah was left out by voters at hundreds of locations across the country (the poll voters) means they got ample chance to be voted in.... they weren't. There have been undefeated teams that havent played for the national championship before. IN FACT in the 70s (i think it was 72) there was a year with like 5 undefeated teams that didn't win the title. Cry another river. Unfortunately for Mr Hatch, the US government is broke right now while the BCS is one of the few things in the country swimming in money. How can it look good to go after one of the few things in the country not in need of a "bailout" aka wasted tax dollars. If they hadnt paid out a dime the feds would have an extra trillion and we'd be exactly where we are.
Posted by: Al-D | March 27, 2009 at 04:39 PM