The BCS sure won't fix itself, so Congress has to step in

This week Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) will either trigger a meaningful debate on the legality of how our college football system works, or he'll be castigated as a grandstanding gasbag crying foul because a team from his state didn't play for a national championship in January.

So far the national media have primarily made fun of the hearing, which is scheduled Tuesday in the nation's capital. The majority of the masses, however, do not like the way college football is manipulated by the Bowl Championship Series and want it fixed.

Even the Las Vegas Sun, a newspaper circulated within Mountain West Conference borders, editorialized a few days ago that Congress has better things to do than stage a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the BCS.

But even that op-ed page blather is populist drivel. Congress, for all its power, has about as much credibility as the BCS. So, what's the harm? It might delay making us into Canada or Sweden for another day.

Something has to be done. Those who can instigate change — university presidents — are afraid to do anything to disrupt ties to historic bowls like the granddaddy of them all, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. They also fear a breakup of the NCAA with the "elite" schools forming their own, separate organization.

Those who govern the NCAA shy away from meaningful college football championship reform. They've left that to an outside contractor, the BCS, which arrogantly has bucked practically all oversight.

But let's be frank here. If the BCS is to evolve or change, it is not going to come from the six elite conferences that set up the alleged cartel. This was evident in how BCS commissioners easily dismissed MWC commissioner Craig Thompson's proposals for reform.

Change will only come from big-time political pressure — a blow with a big hammer.

While the BCS has grudgingly evolved and fine-tuned itself the past half decade — even worked to be more inclusive and share some of the gold — it only did so after tremendous pressure and criticism nationally, along with the threat of governmental involvement.

For all the praise and flak Hatch will receive in coming days, the fact that the BCS is a gigantic enterprise conducting business inside the United States makes it a legitimate topic. Its exclusionary tactics, by design, are fundamental to its existence.

By law, Congress, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are required to investigate an illegal monopoly.