Obama Wants Playoffs

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said he would love to meet with President Obama and lay out his case for why a playoff would be bad for college football.

“I think it would be way cool,” Hancock said Wednesday. “If the opportunity presented itself, we would go in a minute. But he has so much else to do, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. He hasn’t said anything about it since Florida went to get its trophy (in 2009).”

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/04/bcs-boss-would-love-a-face-to-face-with-obama.html

A major college football bowl game’s donation to a political candidate is an improper use of its money, a group said Friday.

The Fiesta Bowl, one of four major Bowl Championship Series (BCS) games, gave former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) $2,000 to help retire his legal debt in advance of his primary challenge of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)

PlayoffPAC, a political group that wants a playoff system to replace the BCS, said Friday that the contribution should spark an investigation into the bowl’s political activity.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/fundraising/92783-anti-bcs-group-upset-with-bowls-donation-to-hayworth

Washington » Two high-ranking senators are demanding a peek at the inner workings of college football’s Bowl Championship Series, just the latest move in an ongoing campaign to force changes in the way the national champion is crowned.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the BCS executive director, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Finance Committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said they have “ongoing concerns” that BCS leaders have not been forthcoming in explaining how their system operates.

“Legal and antitrust concerns aside, I think it’s clear that the BCS is fundamentally unfair and harmful to schools, students, college football fans and consumers throughout the country,” Hatch said in a statement. “At the very least, I think the architects of the BCS should provide the public with more information to dispel the notion that the system is explicitly designed to favor certain teams while disfavoring others.”

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14640573

President Barack Obama on Monday welcomed the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) winner Alabama Crimson Tide football team to the White House.

The number one-ranked Tide won its 13th college football national championship in January, soundly defeating the Texas Longhorns by a score of 37-21.

Obama has also expressed displeasure with the BCS system and has voiced support for a playoff system, but the White House declined to invite Boise State.

http://washingtonscene.thehill.com/in-the-know/36-news/2625-obama-welcomes-college-football-champions-to-the-white-house

Big legal troubles could be in store for the college football playoff system that the Utah attorney general says disadvantages his and other states.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said Tuesday that the Bowl Championship Series could face multistate litigation — and even federal antitrust action — over the way the BCS chooses its championship game participants.

“This could be a multi-hundred million lawsuit,” Shurtleff told Legal Newsline, adding that litigation would be a last resort for him. “Ultimately the goal is not to get money but to get them to change the system to be more competitive.”

http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/225870-utah-ag-takes-football-antitrust-case-to-holder-varney

Strange BCS bedfellows

Facing frustration, stalemate and outright defeat on numerous fronts — that isn’t the only way of looking at his first year in office, but it seems to have some currency in the media of late — you’d think President Obama and his administration would be looking for an easy win, maybe some change and some hope, right about now.

We have just the thing for them.

It’s a sure thing that would allow the Democrats to seize the initiative, to work in a genuinely bipartisan way with the Republicans and to produce a popular and beneficial change for the nation. It is, of course, the Bowl Championship Series, an issue that Obama discussed repeatedly during the campaign in 2008 but has left on the back burner ever since.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?page=munson/100211

A political group founded last year to oppose the existing college football playoff system struggled to raise funds in first year of operation.

According to Federal Elections Commission (FEC) reports filed by Playoff PAC, the committee only raised $5,974 in cash and in-kind contributions last year and had only three contributions of $200 or more.

The group was founded in September amid much fanfare on Capitol Hill because it was backed by former Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), who oppose the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) system that critics say make it almost impossible for small schools to win a national championship.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/80725-anti-bcs-group-struggles-to-raise-funds-in-first-year

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is considering several steps that would review the legality of the controversial Bowl Championship Series, the Justice Department said in a letter Friday to a senator who had asked for an antitrust review.

In the letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch, obtained by The Associated Press, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote that the Justice Department is reviewing Hatch’s request and other materials to determine whether to open an investigation into whether the BCS violates antitrust laws.

“Importantly, and in addition, the administration also is exploring other options that might be available to address concerns with the college football postseason,” Weich wrote, including asking the Federal Trade Commission to review the legality of the BCS under consumer protection laws.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4870657

WASHINGTON – Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is asking President Obama to recognize the championship Boise State University football team at the White House for its undefeated season.

In a Jan. 14, 2010 letter to the president, Hatch said the Boise State Broncos are every bit as deserving of that invitation to the White House as Bowl Champion Series champion Alabama, especially since both teams were undefeated and the NCAA has not instituted a playoff system to decide a true national champion.

http://hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=2e992a81-1b78-be3e-e040-5c57d88ff024

Don’t expect Congress to act anytime soon to outlaw the increasingly unpopular BCS, but many insiders say the effort by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) to pass legislation leading to a college football playoff system will eventually succeed.

President Obama, who wants to see a playoff system, remains ready to sign a bill. Aides admit it’s not a big priority, but Obama nonetheless sees the BCS as unfair to smaller schools in lesser conferences and supports efforts to scrap the BCS.

“The BCS has been unpopular from the start, but now the public finally realizes that it’s nothing but a house of stacked decks. Depending on which poll you look at, the BCS’ approval rating is as low as 10%. To quote one of my favorite American statesmen, ‘When you get that low, you’re down to paid staffers and blood relatives,’” said Matt Sanderson, who runs Playoff PAC, a nonpartisan outfit committed to dumping the BCS.