US House Panel passes college football playoff bill

[Go Gophers Rah]

As if the federal government didn't have better things to do, there is a bill in the works that would prohibit calling any game a "national championship" unless it was the result of a playoff.

Here's the article:


House panel passes college football playoff bill
By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP)—A House subcommittee approved legislation Wednesday aimed at forcing college football to switch to a playoff system to determine its national champion, over the objections of some lawmakers who said Congress has meatier targets to tackle.

The bill, which faces steep odds, would ban the promotion of a postseason NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision game as a national championship unless it results from a playoff. The measure passed by voice vote in a House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee, with one audible “no,” from Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga.

“With all due respect, I really think we have more important things to spend our time on,” Barrow said before the vote, although he stressed he didn’t like the current Bowl Championship Series, either.
House Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection subcommittee Chairman Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., center, flanked by subcommittee counsel Timothy Robinson, left, and subcommittee member Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, presides over the subcommittee's hearing to markup legislation on a BCS college football playoff system, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

The BCS selections announced last weekend pit two unbeaten teams, No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Texas, in the Jan. 7 national title game. Three other undefeated teams—TCU, Cincinnati and Boise State—will play in a BCS bowl game, but not for the championship.

“What can we say—it’s December and the BCS is in chaos again,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He said the BCS system is unfair and won’t change unless prompted by Congress.

The legislation, which goes to the full committee, would make it illegal to promote a national championship game “or make a similar representation,” unless it results from a playoff.

There is no Senate version, although Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has pressed for a Justice Department antitrust investigation into the BCS.

Shortly after his election last year, Barack Obama said there should be a playoff system.

In a statement before the vote, BCS executive director Bill Hancock said, “With all the serious matters facing our country, surely Congress has more important issues than spending taxpayer money to dictate how college football is played.”

The subcommittee chairman, Rep. Bobby Rush, an Illinois Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, said, “We can walk and chew gum at the same time.”

Yet Barrow wasn’t alone in criticizing his colleagues’ priorities; Reps. Zach Space, D-Ohio, and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., made similar arguments. Space said that with people facing tough times, the decision to focus on college football sends the “wrong message.”

The bill has a tough road ahead, given the wide geographic representation and political clout of schools in the six conferences—the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC—that get automatic BCS bowl bids

The current college bowl system features a championship game between the two top teams in the BCS standings, based on two polls and six computer rankings. Eight other schools play in the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose bowls.

Under the BCS, the champions of those six big conference get automatic bids, while other conferences don’t. Those six conferences also receive far more money than the other conferences.

Information on the bill, H.R. 390, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/

 

[50PoundHead]

Yeah, don't they have like about 8 million more important things to think about?

 

[magpie]

I can see why they want to force a playoff, but I would really think they'd have something better to do then cry about college football. How about worrying about jobs/budget/war/etc....

 

[RodentRampage]

I support a playoff, but this bill is probably unconstitutional. Anyone can award a mythical national championship. The Insight Bowl could declare the winner of that game to be the National Champion. People would laugh, but they could do it. The difference between this hypothetical Insight National Championship and the BCS National Championship is that both would unofficial, the value of the BCS championship is that people accept the BCS champion as the national champion.

Besides, the BCS could argue that it is in fact a playoff, merely a 2 team tournament instead of a 4, 8 or 16 team tournament. If this bill doesn't specify the size of the tournament, that's a flaw the BCS could exploit.

 

[Iceland12]

Thank God! That must mean that they've got the Iraq and Afghan wars and that whole economy thing under control!

 

[frozengopher]

In regards to time spent, it doesn't really take that long to create a bill in regards to this. It's more than likely that a bunch of aides to the authoring house members threw it together. With all of the pork barrel projects that get written up and passed along on a regular basis in the congress, this actually amounts to something worthwhile in regards to the chunk of the population it would inevitably affect.

 

[magpie]

The Insight Bowl could declare the winner of that game to be the National Champion.

Dear God... Iowa St National Champs?

 

[Khaliq]

We are governed by a class of people that are both dull and frivolous.

 

[Great Plains Gopher]

Self-government is the issue

The NCAA may not have it quite right (like schoolboards that ban "Tom Sawyer") but, as in any democratic enterprise, they muddle through. Having the federal government dictating college football playoffs is unacceptable. I called the co-sponsors in the House, Joe Barton and Bobby Rush, and made that clear!

 

[maxwellsmart]

The NCAA may not have it quite right (like schoolboards that ban "Tom Sawyer") but, as in any democratic enterprise, they muddle through. Having the federal government dictating college football playoffs is unacceptable. I called the co-sponsors in the House, Joe Barton and Bobby Rush, and made that clear!

Follow the money, not the bouncing pigskin. A guy like Orrin Hatch doesn't go antitrust searching unless he figures his constituents are getting ripped. A smaller piece of the revenue pie and less publicity equals a lot of business and jobs, or at least it's not hard to see it that way if you're sitting in a state fighting the BCS system.

 

[monk10]

Aren't there a ton of taxes applied during bowl season. Maybe they are watching their money stream?

 

[kramer]

I support a playoff, but this bill is probably unconstitutional. Anyone can award a mythical national championship. The Insight Bowl could declare the winner of that game to be the National Champion. People would laugh, but they could do it. The difference between this hypothetical Insight National Championship and the BCS National Championship is that both would unofficial, the value of the BCS championship is that people accept the BCS champion as the national champion.

Besides, the BCS could argue that it is in fact a playoff, merely a 2 team tournament instead of a 4, 8 or 16 team tournament. If this bill doesn't specify the size of the tournament, that's a flaw the BCS could exploit.

Congress has every right to do this considering they have the power to regulate matters of antitrust and interstate commerce (especially since this bill originates in the commerce committee I imagine that is how they are going to regulate the BCS). I'm surprised so many on here are such diehard proponents of keeping competition out of sports so that powerhouses can annually pad their pockets with BCS monies (and the BCS can pad their pockets for that matter)!

 

[GoldenHerbs]

I think its crazy, they should focus on bringin home our troops instead of b.s. bcs. Forefathers rolling in their grave.

 

[Go Gophers Rah]

Aren't there a ton of taxes applied during bowl season. Maybe they are watching their money stream?

The only taxes involved in bowls that I am aware of are sales taxes. Sales tax is the jurisdiction of states and municipalities, not of the federal government.

 

[MRJ]

As if the federal government didn't have better things to do, there is a bill in the works that would prohibit calling any game a "national championship" unless it was the result of a playoff.

Here's the article:


House panel passes college football playoff bill
By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP)—A House subcommittee approved legislation Wednesday aimed at forcing college football to switch to a playoff system to determine its national champion, over the objections of some lawmakers who said Congress has meatier targets to tackle.

The bill, which faces steep odds, would ban the promotion of a postseason NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision game as a national championship unless it results from a playoff. The measure passed by voice vote in a House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee, with one audible “no,” from Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga.

“With all due respect, I really think we have more important things to spend our time on,” Barrow said before the vote, although he stressed he didn’t like the current Bowl Championship Series, either.
House Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection subcommittee Chairman Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., center, flanked by subcommittee counsel Timothy Robinson, left, and subcommittee member Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, presides over the subcommittee's hearing to markup legislation on a BCS college football playoff system, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

The BCS selections announced last weekend pit two unbeaten teams, No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Texas, in the Jan. 7 national title game. Three other undefeated teams—TCU, Cincinnati and Boise State—will play in a BCS bowl game, but not for the championship.

“What can we say—it’s December and the BCS is in chaos again,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He said the BCS system is unfair and won’t change unless prompted by Congress.

The legislation, which goes to the full committee, would make it illegal to promote a national championship game “or make a similar representation,” unless it results from a playoff.

There is no Senate version, although Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has pressed for a Justice Department antitrust investigation into the BCS.

Shortly after his election last year, Barack Obama said there should be a playoff system.

In a statement before the vote, BCS executive director Bill Hancock said, “With all the serious matters facing our country, surely Congress has more important issues than spending taxpayer money to dictate how college football is played.”

The subcommittee chairman, Rep. Bobby Rush, an Illinois Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, said, “We can walk and chew gum at the same time.”

Yet Barrow wasn’t alone in criticizing his colleagues’ priorities; Reps. Zach Space, D-Ohio, and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., made similar arguments. Space said that with people facing tough times, the decision to focus on college football sends the “wrong message.”

The bill has a tough road ahead, given the wide geographic representation and political clout of schools in the six conferences—the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC—that get automatic BCS bowl bids

The current college bowl system features a championship game between the two top teams in the BCS standings, based on two polls and six computer rankings. Eight other schools play in the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose bowls.

Under the BCS, the champions of those six big conference get automatic bids, while other conferences don’t. Those six conferences also receive far more money than the other conferences.

Information on the bill, H.R. 390, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/

What a joke. Stupid things like this are the reason why the American public have little to no faith in their government. But I guess as long as we have a true national champion in football, everything will okay.

 

[go4gopher]

Anti-trust regulation targeted toward the BCS while concurrently supporting "Too Big To Fail" banking and automotive companies seems counter-intuitive to me. Obviously, there are other more pressing issues on the table! Moreover, I guarantee that a hypothetical eight team play-off system would not include all three schools of Boise State, Cincinatti, and TCU.

 

[hyaluronic]

My biggest concern with a tournament is that the "undefeated" teams will demand a seat, and once a provision is made so that all undefeated teams get a fair shake. Then, the non-BCS teams have no incentive to play powerhouse schools, and will simply try to get into the mix each year by scheduling even softer opponents.

 

[Schnoodler]

I think the quote about chewing gum and walking is accurate. I highly doubt they have much time invested in this other than reading a report about how the voters in their home states feel about it. Let's not pretend they are putting more important things on the back burner for this, I'd be surprised if they spend more than fifteen minutes on this all year. I'm all for pressuring the NCAA to pull its head out it's arse.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I don't care if it took them 15 minutes. The amount of tax payer dollars that go into merely 15 minutes of actual work being done in Washington is incredible. It is disgusting that they are getting involved in something like a college football playoff system. I find it to be a terrible waste of time but more importantly it's the government getting involved in something that has no need for gov't intervention. Worse case scenario....there is some debate over who would have really been a National Champion. Big deal....if it's just aids writing and researching the bill, have them take that 15 minutes to do something useful. I love college football....but could anything be a larger waste of time?

 

[Schnoodler]

It is important to alot of people. Don't pretend your agenda is more important than others. I think it's worth one one thousandths of their time to apply a little pressure to the knuckle heads in the NCAA to do what the public wants. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.

 

[Goldmember]

My biggest concern with a tournament is that the "undefeated" teams will demand a seat, and once a provision is made so that all undefeated teams get a fair shake. Then, the non-BCS teams have no incentive to play powerhouse schools, and will simply try to get into the mix each year by scheduling even softer opponents.

Bingo!

A playoff is mostly just an attempt to satisfy people that aren't interested in following the sport to begin with.

The payoff for "making the playoffs" would be so huge teams would water-down their schedules as much as possible. Team that are in good conferences may even think of jumping ship. The result would be a regular season that no one is interested in.

Most teams have already aknowleged the benefit of a soft regular season schedule. The push by non-AQ's to be included in the BCS bowls is why we are already seeing fewer and fewer marquee matchups every year. BCS conference teams know that there will be 0 or 1 loss non AQ's -- and that becomes the number to match.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

It is important to alot of people. Don't pretend your agenda is more important than others. I think it's worth one one thousandths of their time to apply a little pressure to the knuckle heads in the NCAA to do what the public wants. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.

My agenda? What are you talking about? I simply said that this is not something the government should be concerning itself with, regardless of whether or not people have some sort of interest in the subject. It's like the House passing a bill for the creation of a Sopranos movie. Yeah, a lot of people have interest in the subject, but it is impossible to argue that it is something the government should be spending their time doing.

 

[RodentRampage]

A playoff is mostly just an attempt to satisfy people that aren't interested in following the sport to begin with.

People who are not interested in following football don't care if the champion is decided by the BCS title game, a poll, a tournament or interpretive dance.

The payoff for "making the playoffs" would be so huge teams would water-down their schedules as much as possible. Team that are in good conferences may even think of jumping ship. The result would be a regular season that no one is interested in.

Let's look at the brutal non-conference schedule played by the two teams in the title game:

Alabama:
Virginia Tech
FIU
North Texas
Tennessee Chattanooga

Texas:
Louisiana Monroe
Wyoming
UTEP
UCF

The current system encourages teams to pad their non-conference schedule with cupcakes.

An 8-team tournament with only conference champions elligible to participate would greatly enhance the importance of the regular season. By eliminating the possibility of a team that didn't win their conference championship playing for the national title, it would enhance the importance of winning the conference title. And because 3 of the 11 conference champions would not make the playoff, just winning your conference wouldn't be good enough. Teams would have incentive to make sure they were one of the top 8 conference champions.

Schools would have no incentive to drop down to a lower conference. First of all, there are other sports to consider, dropping down to a weaker conference would hurt basketball. Secondly, the move down would weaken the football program. If Florida moved down to the Sun Belt so they could be the champion every year, there recruiting would suffer greatly. Even if they could maintain quality sufficient to win the conference each year, they couldn't be sure of being one of the top 8 champions.

The regular season would also impact seeding in the tournament. It wouldn't be like the NFL, where teams rest their starters in the final game if the game wouldn't affect their seeding. Each team's seeding would be at stake, so there would be no incentive not to try to win all the games. This would become especially important if the opening round was at the higher seeded team's home field.

Most teams have already aknowleged the benefit of a soft regular season schedule. The push by non-AQ's to be included in the BCS bowls is why we are already seeing fewer and fewer marquee matchups every year. BCS conference teams know that there will be 0 or 1 loss non AQ's -- and that becomes the number to match.

... right, because of all the times the BCS has put undefeated teams from non-BCS schools in the national title game.

 

[Schnoodler]

The competition level steps up because of a playoff. Teams like Minnesota have a chance every year in a playoff format. Most years they have none, their target becomes six wins for bowl eligibility instead of conference championship or good tourney placement.

Personally I like an 20 team format with the top four teams getting buys. The conference champs and the next 9 highest sangarins get in. Easy shmeazy. I'm not opposed to a double bye system for football, as it makes it unlikely that any team would ever play more than three games and keeps post season inclusion on the same level as the current bowl system.

 

[mnsportsfan04]

I am personally a fan of the BCS system. I think it makes each game have more meaning. But, whether you like the BCS or a playoff system, I think the government should stay out of sports. Here's a good post on the topic: Cheerleaders banned next?