Politicians
Many Politicians have tried to bring a playoff to college football.
- Barack Obama (President of the United States of America)
- Joseph Biden (Vice-President of the United States of America)
- Orrin Hatch (U.S. Senator, Utah)
- Joe Barton (U.S. Congressman, Texas)
- Gary Miller (U.S. Congressman, California)
- Edolphus Towns (U.S. Congressman, New York)
- Bobby Rush (U.S. Congressman, Illinois)
- Mark Shurtleff (Attorney General, Utah)
- Neil Abercrombie (U.S. Congressman, Hawaii)
- Lynn Westmoreland (U.S. Congressman, Georgia)
- Mike Simpson (U.S. Congressman, Idaho)
- Barbara Cubin (former U.S. Congressman, Wyoming)
- James Sensenbrenner (Congressman, Wisconsin)
A Timeline of Politicians and the BCS:
September 2003: The House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., holds a hearing on the BCS and whether it violates antitrust laws. Neither BCS supporters nor detractors call for congressional legislation, although Tulane University President Scott Cowen calls for more congressional hearings if talks between BCS officials and non-BCS schools fail. Tulane went undefeated in 1998 but was excluded from the BCS bowls because it finished 11th in the BCS standings.
October 2003: The Senate Judiciary Committee follows with its own hearing on the BCS. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Delaware, calls the BCS “un-American” and says it looks “like a rigged deal.” Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R.-Utah, notes that just because the system is unfair “doesn’t make it unlawful.”
March 2005: Texas state senator Jeff Wentworth introduces a bill that would prohibit all teams from Texas playing in the BCS unless a playoff system was created. The bill (which would have prevented Texas from playing in the 2006 national championship game, which it won) dies.
December 2005: Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, convenes a BCS hearing by a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. Barton, a Texas A&M graduate, says he does not have legislation in mind to force a change but hopes congressional hearings will spur discussion and improvements.
During the hearing, BCS coordinator Kevin Weiberg tells the panel that a playoff system could be used in major college football and the so-called “plus-one” model for determining a national champion should be reconsidered.
Also during the hearing, Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyoming, says the BCS system discriminates against teams from the Mountain West Conference, including Wyoming. Cubin cites Wyoming’s victory over UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl as proof that polls aren’t always the best indicator of who is the better team. “Wyoming went to the Las Vegas Bowl and played UCLA and UCLA was furious they had to play Wyoming — and then we whupped em,” she says.
April 2008: Three members of Congress call for the Justice Department to investigate the BCS. Reps. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., and Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, introduce a resolution rejecting the BCS as an illegal restriction on trade because only the largest universities compete in most of the major bowl games.
“Who elected these NCAA people? Who are they to decide who competes for the championship?” Abercrombie says at a Capitol Hill press conference while holding a souvenir University of Hawaii football.
The University of Hawaii and Boise State University in Idaho each had an undefeated season in recent years, but were denied a shot at the championship. And Westmoreland says he is still smarting about his University of Georgia Bulldogs being passed over for the national championship game last year.
November 2008: On the eve of the presidential election, during an interview on Monday Night Football, Barack Obama advocates a playoff to determine the national champion. “I’m fed up with these computer rankings and this and that and the other,” he says. “Get eight teams — the top eight teams right at the end. You got a playoff. Decide on a national champion.” After the election, on 60 Minutes, Obama said: “”I think any sensible person would say that, 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, that we should be creating a playoff system. Eight teams, that would be three rounds to determine a national champion. It would — 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.” (reported by the Washington Post)
December 2008: Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, introduces a bill to eliminate the BCS. “When we held our first hearing on BCS in 2005,” Barton says, “I didn’t have legislation in mind, and I hoped none would be necessary. Simply exposing the flaws and subjecting them to discussion, however, hasn’t led to improvement by those who run the system.
“The legislation we are introducing today will prohibit the marketing, promotion, and advertising of a post-season game as a ‘national championship’ football game, unless it is the result of a playoff system.”
January 2009: Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff says he is investigating the BCS for a possible violation of federal antitrust laws after an undefeated Utes team was left out of the national title game for the second time in five years.
January 2009: Rep. Gary Miller, R-Calif., introduces a bill that would prohibit the receipt of federal funds from schools with a football team unless the national championship game is the culmination of a playoff system. The bill would require NCAA schools participating in the Football Bowl Subdivision to implement a playoff system to determine a champion within three years of enactment.
May 2009: Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, holds a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection titled, “The Bowl Championship Series: Money and Other Issues of Fairness for Publicly Financed Universities.” Witnesses testified about the latest attempts to define the “true” champion in is the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), which started in 1998. They addressed a variety of issues including the need for a playoff game or series, uncompetitive practices involving revenue for larger and smaller schools, and the congressional oversight role in college athletics. (C-Span video)
July 2009: Orrin Hatch writes an editorial in Sports Illustrated presenting “The Case for Congressional Hearings into the BCS.” In that article, Senator Hatch argues for an antitrust case against the BCS, writing that: “The Sherman Antitrust Act prohibits contracts, combinations or conspiracies designed to reduce competition. I don’t think a more accurate description of what the BCS does exists.” Senator Hatch holds a hearing on July 7: “The Bowl Championship Series: Is it Fair and In Compliance with Antitrust Law?” Harvey Perlman, the Chancellor of the University of Nebraska, and Michael Young, the President of the University of Utah, testify at the hearing along with two antitrust lawyers.