Championship unfairness

Critics might say there are more important issues — a recession and two wars come to my mind — which Congress should be worrying about. Yet this is arguably an issue that Americans care more passionately about: the inexcusably bizarre way we choose our national college-football champion.

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the ranking Republican on the Senate antitrust subcommittee, plans to challenge the Bowl Championship Series, the arcane mixture of polls and computer rankings by which the nation's largest colleges choose who plays in the major bowls, including the championship game, and by which schools and conferences harvest millions as a result.

Hatch says the BCS system "is anti-competitive, unfair, and, in my opinion, un-American." Actually, it's very American in the sense that it's all about money, which is why the senator's crusade likely will not get very far. But he is far from alone. Sports junkies, the ubiquitous sports talk shows and President Obama himself want to see a playoff system for the 119 Division I schools.

The champions of the six major conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC) get automatic BCS bowl bids, which pay each school $17 million, as the networks that broadcast the games do very well out of the BCS. The five conferences without automatic bids do not. One of those is the Mountain West, whose champion last year coincidentally was Utah, the only undefeated team in Division I.

Utah was not invited to play for the championship. Florida and Oklahoma were, even though each had one loss. At the same time, in the House, Rep. Joe Barton, Texas, ranking Republican on the Commerce committee, was introducing a bill that would bar the NCAA from calling the top BCS bowl a "national championship" unless it went to a playoff system. As it happens, one-loss Texas gave Oklahoma its only loss. First Amendment problems aside, Barton's bill probably isn't going anywhere, either.

But on the drive home, the sports talk shows, after denouncing Congress for wasting time on trivialities, will devote the next three hours to taking calls from listeners debating the merits of BCS vs. playoffs.