Justice Department Looking at BCS

I really do not like the current Bowl Championship Series in college football. If the old system sometimes failed in choosing a college national championship by a vote after the New Year’s Day bowls, the new system is no better in picking the only two teams which can contend for the national championship after the end of the regular season. As faulty as the old system was, at least it kept several possibilities open depending upon how the New Year’s Day bowls played out. The current system also makes the New Year’s Day bowls, and all other bowls other than the single national championship game, almost meaningless. Either a return to the previous system or a play off would be preferable to the BCS.

As much as I do not like the BCS, and many other things in the world for that matter, it is not the role of government to step in and fix everything. Previously there has been talk of Congress investigating. Now the Justice Department is getting involved:

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.

Several lawmakers and many critics want the BCS to switch to a playoff system, rather than the ratings system it uses to determine the teams that play in the championship game.

“The administration shares your belief that the current lack of a college football national championship playoff with respect to the highest division of college football … raises important questions affecting millions of fans, colleges and universities, players and other interested parties,” Weich wrote.

Weich made note of the fact that President Barack Obama, before he was sworn in, had stated his preference for a playoff system. In 2008, Obama said he was going to “to throw my weight around a little bit” to nudge college football toward a playoff system, a point that Hatch stressed when he urged Obama last fall to ask the department to investigate the BCS.

Weich said that other options include encouraging the NCAA to take control of the college football postseason; asking a governmental or non-governmental commission to review the costs, benefits and feasibility of a playoff system; and legislative efforts aimed at prompting a switch to a playoff system.