"If you've got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season, and many of them have one loss or two losses, there's no clear decisive winner. We should be creating a playoff system," then presidential candidate Obama told interviewer Steve Kroft. "It would add three extra weeks to the season. You could trim back on the regular season. I don't know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this. So, I'm going to throw my weight around a little bit. I think it's the right thing to do."
And now that he's President and has saved the world, almost single-handedly, from the scourge of Osama bin Laden, he is turning his Department of Justice loose on the NCAA's , Bowl Championship Series (BCS). The Associated Press (AP) reports that in a letter "the department's antitrust chief, Christine Varney, asked NCAA President Mark Emmert why a playoff system isn't used in football, unlike in other sports; what steps the NCAA has taken to create one; and whether Emmert thinks there are aspects of the BCS system that don't serve the interest of fans, schools and players."
But it's not just an Obama, or Democrat issue. This is too important an issue to play partisan politics. On October 21, 2010, Bloomberg reported that Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), "asked President Barack Obama to have the Justice Department investigate college football’s Bowl Championship Series to determine if it violates the Sherman Antitrust Act." Hatch further said, “My goal is go get into a championship playoff system where whoever the teams are, they are justified in playing in the national championship. The BCS system requires everybody to join. It’s an unfair system and we need to do everything we can to try and change it.”
So, there you go, finally an issue that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on. And what could be more important. Everybody with any awareness of the importance of college football understands just how terrible the BCS system is...at least if your team didn't make a bowl game. What better cause on which to use the coercive, destructive power of the Federal government than this? I mean, if the Constitution didn't intend to protect us from travesties such as this, then there is no protection...no justice at all.
Stand firm! Stand for your rights as an American sports fan! History will record this struggle along with the hearings about use of steroids in professional baseball and inquiries into the safety of football helmets. Don't be on the wrong side of history.
