Two nationally renowned columnists took up the Utes' cause this week. ESPN's Rick Reilly and the Washington Post's John Feinstein declared the Utes as national champions this week.

The Utes have been the subject nationwide for TV shows, radio gabfests, blogs, magazines and newspapers.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff made national news after declaring that he will investigate the BCS for violation of antitrust law. Utah senator Orrin Hatch jumped into the fray, as well.

The Utes' case for a national championship is simple: They won every game they played — and they were the only team to do it.

This time, the old arguments against unbeaten non-BCS teams don't apply. No one can say they played a lame schedule. They beat five teams that were nationally ranked. They manhandled Alabama, a team that ranked No. 1 for the last five weeks of the regular season and skated through the regular season unbeaten while playing in the redoubtable SEC. They beat them on what was essentially Alabama's home field, and beat them every way possible. They out-coached, out-hit, out-passed, outran and out-tackled the legendary Crimson Tide. Any questions?

Consider what the Utes overcame: They were ranked only 23rd in the preseason USA Today poll while their competition got a head start — Oklahoma fourth, Florida fifth, Texas ninth.

Along the way, they got no help from the system. The college game is unfair on two levels: 1) It determines champions based on polls, not play on the field (playoffs); 2) It favors the six BCS conferences. Winners of the six BCS conferences are granted automatic berths in BCS bowls, regardless of ranking; it takes a specially defined set of circumstances for non-BCS types to get in.

It is revealing that in the 11-year history of the BCS's stranglehold on college football, only three non-BCS schools have managed to slip through the cracks and earn a spot in one of the BCS Bowls — playing four times in 47 games. Utah has done it twice.

For all practical purposes, 54 of college football's 119 Division I-A schools are virtually eliminated from a chance to compete for the championship before they ever play a game. They are second-class citizens.

In response to Barack Obama's request for change a few weeks ago, BCS coordinator John Swofford actually said this with a straight face: "We welcome a dialogue on what's best for college football ... and what's best is the current system."

Which is pure bunk of course. This is about nothing more than money, a case of the rich getting richer and not wanting to share the loot with the lower classes. It's the good-ol'-boys bowl network protecting its turf.

No matter how you cut it, the arrangement is just plain un-American. In America, it's what you do, not who you are or what club you belong to or how much money you have. It's about fairness and equal opportunity and performance, or it's supposed to be.

And now Utah has twice been cheated by this system. As Reilly noted, this should be probably be the Utes' second national championship. They were unbeaten in 2004, as well, winning every game by at least two touchdowns, including a 35-7 rout of Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl. But then, as now, nobody gave them an opportunity to play for the championship.

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E-mail: drob@desnews.com