Congress taking it to extreme with BCS

December 5, 2005 —

In the wake of an investigation that saw Congress probe Major League Baseball and its players on matters of steroid use, Congress is now targeting college football and its Bowl Championship Series format of determining which schools play in the national championship game, calling the system "deeply flawed."

A House Energy and Commerce sub-committee will conduct a hearing this week to discuss the often controversial BCS, which makes its determination for the national championship using a mixture of human and computer polls. The system was implemented in 1998 and has had few controversy-free years.

As recent as 2004, four teams finished the regular season undefeated but only the University of Southern California and the University of Oklahoma played for the right to be called champions. Auburn University and the University of Utah were left out of the national championship hunt despite not suffering a loss.

While it is comforting to see Congress actually taking initiative, it is ridiculous that they have decided to target college football. Congress' role in the steroids issue was difficult enough to swallow, but at least it dealt with drug use and potential health issues.

In addition, impressionable children seeing their favorite athletes using steroids could potentially lead to future usage in today's youth. The only harm the "deeply flawed" BCS seems to cause though is the occasional pain in the neck. And yet a number of our elected officials will take time away from more important matters and spend taxpayer money on an argument over college football. At this point, they are barely one step above holding the meeting in a sports bar in front of a plate of chicken wings.

The funny part of all of this is that people seem to forget the system in place before the BCS. As recent as 1997, all of the Division I-A teams would play out their seasons, maybe go to a bowl game and then a group of coaches and media members would vote on who they thought the best team was. People may remember that year well, since Michigan and Nebraska shared the national championship because the two polls could not agree on who they thought was the best. Sure, the BCS is far from perfect, but it beats a tie.

And while it is admirable that Congress seeks fairness, it is worth mentioning that life itself is far from fair, so why should anyone expect anything different in the world of sports? Good people get hurt and good teams get left out.

Plus, part of the allure with sports is dealing with the controversy. Was it fair or foul? Safe or out? Ball or strike? People exposed to college football for decades have been unable to come up with a fair system. What makes Congress think they can do any better? The only "fair" way to determine a winner is to have a playoff system and that will never happen because there is far too much money in the ValleyVanguard.com bowl to ever allow that to happen.

In the end, the most disturbing part is that the federal government is slowly beginning to infiltrate things they have no business being involved in. Things such as the PATRIOT Act already give the government far too mcuh power than they should have in the first place. Who knows what they could do with more power in the future.

At the beginning of the year steroids were the hot topic amongst elected officials. Today, it is college football and trying to eliminate a system with a few bugs that cause sports reporters and armchair quarterbacks grief. Perhaps then it is only a matter of time before Congress goes after other important issues such as whether the American League should do away with the designated hitter or if the NHL should go back to the days of ties and low scoring games.

Congress should worry about things that really matter and let the football folks handle football and the baseball folks handle baseball, and keep their noses out of places they do not belong.