Aggie congressman Joe Barton has introduced a bill to abolish the BCS regime and mandate the creation of a playoff system for college football. I quietly place all my hostilities to government intervention in sports into a shoebox for this vote and hope it passes. President-elect Obama has already declared himself opposed to the BCS.
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In general, I would agree, but how often does it work out that way in D.C.? Say, for example, that the bill starts out simply calling for a four-team playoff. BUT:
-Congressman A thinks there should be 16 teams in the playoffs
-Congressman B thinks at least one of the playoff games should be played in a new, world-class stadium to be built in his district in Vermont
-Congressman C thinks that EVERY conference, no matter how small, should get an automatic bid, since he’s an Akron alum and wants his Zips to have a shot at glory
-Congressman D thinks that these games will make so much money that a certain percentage should be taken from the schools and conferences and given to Congress to spend how it sees fit
-Congressman E thinks that football is too violent a sport for kids to watch on TV, so new rules should be required which would turn the game into flag football
-Congressman F thinks the cheerleaders’ unis are WAY too skimpy, and attaches a rider to abolish cheerleading in amateur sports
-Congressman G is a PETA supporter, so specifies that any school with a live animal mascot cannot participate in the playoff
-Congressman H says that women must be allowed in equal numbers on the football squads
etc., etc……
All too true Chris. Yet I’m willing to risk it in this instance. Occasionally the pure inhumanity of an injustice rises to a requirement for intervention. The University of Oklahoma is such an example.
and quite an example at that. If you’re interested in watching a reenactment of the battle of Plataea, get to Dallas in early October next year.
Chris, excellent points. The idea of a playoff is popular (and I’m a proponent of it), but the chance of an I-can’t-help-myself Congress overreaching and making changes that end up being widely viewed as “ruining” college football is pretty high. If I was a Congressman, I wouldn’t touch this. You want constituents with torches and pitchforks? Start messing with college football.