BCS a tad nervous as Congress watches

Remember that political action group that hatched the same weekend the first BCS standings came out? You know, the one seeking a true playoff system for college football? The Playoff PAC?

Well, it appears it got the guys atop the status quo to blink.

The resulting publicity, carried by every major media outlet — including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, ESPN, USA Today, and CBS sports — highlighted an issue the majority of Americans care about, a championship earned on the field instead of on the bytes of computers and whims of human voters directed by the BCS.

Like the Playoff PAC folks pointed out, the BCS does not respond to pressure from college football fans, nor the public as a whole, whom they should serve. But when politicians and Congress get involved, they flinch. They do not like it.

In the days that followed the announcement of the Playoff PAC — an organization created to mobilize voices of fans through elected officials in Washington — it appears BCS bigwigs reacted by calling in their own chips.

The BCS announced it is looking into hiring its own full-time help to counter the Playoff PAC after Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) wrote a letter to President Obama asking to launch an anti-trust investigation.

Is it any coincidence ESPN, a major partner of the BCS, had on-air talent, one after another, come out with commentary poking fun at the Playoff PAC that read like talking points straight from BCS headquarters? ESPN2's Rece Davis slammed Hatch and other politicians that support the Playoff PAC and called it the "biggest hot air hoax since we thought little Falcon was floating on that balloon."

Similar criticism came from SportsCenter talent, including the famous counter-point debate by Lou Holtz and Mark May, who agreed government had no business worrying about sports entertainment.

Talking points to counter the Playoff PAC insurgency? I asked one of the founders of the Playoff PAC if he thought ESPN had been asked to create a counter media blitz and chirp out criticism as a lockstep partner of the BCS.

Said Matthew Sanderson: "I hesitate to speculate on the exact reasoning behind these on-air diatribes by ESPN personalities in the days since the Playoff PAC's launch. But we've obviously touched a nerve.

"We don't mind the criticism. We just hope that ESPN will recognize its obligation to present a balanced perspective to its viewers, and that they will want to prevent any appearance that they're pushing someone else's agenda."

Sanderson said the Playoff PAC sent a letter to ESPN and USA Today this week, asking for balance in coverage of the issue, citing absolutely no contact to get an opposing view from the Playoff PAC.