College football should have a playoff system. But is this really an issue for Congress? Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, held a antitrust subcommittee hearing this week on the fairness of the Bowl Championship Series. He is still upset that the undefeated University of Utah wasn’t selected for this past season’s BCS national championship game. Hatch complained that smaller conference schools are unfairly excluded, but the University of Nebraska’s chancellor responded: “There realistically is something Utah could do. They could play the schedule Nebraska played.”
Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/7
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/7
- Monkeyhawk on Open thread 11/7
- Monkeyhawk on Open thread 11/7
- Freebird1971 on Open thread 11/7
- Pleefer on Open thread 11/7
- Boxlock20 on Open thread 11/7
- Boxlock20 on Open thread 11/7
- Freebird1971 on Open thread 11/7
- Freebird1971 on Open thread 11/7
9 Comments
More important, would Sen. Hatch like to cite some Constitutional authority for Congress getting involved in this area? At least, with a straight face?
GMC – not sure about Constitution but we do have a long history of ‘trust-busting’ – I would assume under an interpretation of the Commerce Clause.
Absolutely nothing to do with football,or anti-trust, and everything to do with getting votes. Typical politics.
It sounds like a case of contract law to me Counselor. That is, contract that is verbal or otherwise implied set forth by an administration that can control the outcome of those under said administration.
There seems in Brownlee’s post to be some quaint notion that big-time college football is a sport. I suppose it has elements of a sport, but really it is a multi-billion-dollar business arrangement. The issue for Congress is NOT how a champion is determined; the issue is one of antitrust. And antitrust is a very legitimate concern of Congress. The way the system is set up, a group of schools (the BCS conferences) have rigged it so that they automatically, year after year, without regard to performance, get big money bowl bids; while other schools, no matter what their performance, are scrambling to maybe get ONE bid, and then it is never in the “championship” game. If any other business association operated that way – guaranteed superior revenues and outcomes for some members, and guaranteed inferior revenues for others – it would be a clear antitrust violation. The fact that this arrangement is centered around a sport seems to blur the probable illegality of the BCS system in people’s minds. Yes, when a multi-billion dollar business arrangement may be operating outside the law it is indeed a legitimate issue for Congress to investigate.
Nebraska’s chancellor is either naive or thinks people listening to him are. There is no way Utah could play the same schedule Nebraska does unless Utah were admitted to the Big 12. And very few if any Big 12 schools would be willing to schedule Utah on a home and home basis as a nonconference series. They are too busy scheduling home games with Southwest Northeastern Podunk School of Cosmetology to pad their win record and revenues. Utah did beat serious opponents, such as Alabama (ranked #1 for several weeks of the season) and Oregon State (beat USC and one win from the Rose Bowl) among others. I can’t believe Brownlee falls for such a disingenuous quote.
I dunno…
What else do you have to be proud of in Nebraska if not the football team?
Orin Hatch is pretty much in the same boat with Utah and BYU.
And what, really, on a national scale does Kansas have to offer other than Jayhawks basketball or (back when they were paying the players) K-State football?
College sports are the minor leagues. Somehow those smart people at universities figured out a way to make the minor leagues important to sports fans.
This is the quintessential “Shiny Thing” distraction so often convenient in political rhetoric.
It’s Orin Hack being a Hatch. (Something like that.) As he’s always been, it’s what passes for comedy with the Mormons. (Not “edgy,” like Donny and Marie.)
The man has enough starch in one of his shirts to feed Biafra for a month.
GMC whats the Constitutional authority for the government to outlaw weed, or imprison Tommy Chong for selling bongs, or Michel Vick for Dogfighting, or outlaw Internet gaming? but I would have to agree that congress has better things to do, at the same time the BCS is a joke and their probably should be a playoff system
Of course, Utah did whip the dog breath out of Alabama, a former number 1 team, in a sound fashion in their bowl game to go undefeated – twice in three years.