Should government get involved in the BCS ?

[David S]

CONGRESS TO HELP FOOTBALL
Saturday, December 03, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.com

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee has announced it has called a hearing on how to repair what it called the "deeply flawed" Bowl Championship Series, designed to crown college football's national champion. "College football is not just an exhilarating sport, but a billion-dollar business that Congress cannot ignore," committee Chairman Joe Barton [R-TX] reportedly said.

The hearing, scheduled for next Wednesday, was termed a "comprehensive review" of the BCS and postseason college football. Barton said he does not have legislation in mind to force a change, but said he hopes congressional hearings will spur discussion and improvements. The supreme irony of this is the fact that, barring a major upset in either of two games being played today (Saturday), this year's championship will indeed be a legitimate showdown between the two acknowledged top contenders for the title, Texas and the University of Southern California.

Unless UT falls to a much-inferior Colorado in the Big Twelve Championship, or USC fails to conquer UCLA in the Pac Ten, the Longhorns and Trojans will face off on January 4th in Rose Bowl, to settle it on the field. In previous years, there has almost always been controversy over the BCS standings, with a third undefeated team claiming it was left out or even leapfrogged by an inferior squad, based solely on arbitrarily drawn-up computer rankings. This has led some pundits to agitate for a playoff system, consisting of a series of games to determine the champion.

[David S]

Personnaly I would like to see a playoff of the top 4 teams. #1 plays #3 and #2 plays #4. The winners of those two games play each other to decide the championship. That would only add one game to the season and only for the top 2 teams. But in no way do I want government getting into the picture.