And now for today's Your Tax Dollars At Work alert: Congress is taking on the BCS.
Yes, the economy's blowing up, gas is up to an arm and TWO legs per gallon in some states, and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq go on and on, draining our resources. But it's the Bowl Championship Series our elected representatives think is worth their time.
According to the Associated Press, three members of Congress -- one from Hawaii, one from Georgia and one from Idaho, so no partisan motives at work there -- are introducing a resolution rejecting the BCS as restraint of trade.
It probably is. But that's not the point.
The point is, the BCS is college football's mess, and college football needs to be the party that fixes it, not Congress. Congress needs to stay out of it, because, one, the folks on the Hill have better things to do, and, two, they all know just enough about college football to make them dangerous.
Which is to say, as usual, this is just three blowhards playing to the crowd in their home states -- where the University of Georgia still thinks it got jobbed out of the BCS title game, and Hawaii's university thinks it should have made a BCS game before this year, and Boise State in Idaho thinks, I'm guessing, that the BCS regularly hoses little guys like itself.
"Who elected these NCAA people? Who are they to decide who competes for the championship?" Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, said the other day.
Well, the NCAA is, um, the ruling body for Division I college athletics, Neil. Absent a playoff system (and yes, college football needs one) who else would you have decide? The Audobon Society?
Look, the BCS is a farce, we all know that. But it's not exactly a Congess-worthy farce.
On other hand .. maybe it's the only issue currently facing it that Congress thinks it can do anything about. Which is a truly scary thought.
-- Ben Smith
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