2000s: The First Decade — Utah at front of BCS battles

The First Decade — Third in a series: A new millennium was born amid concerns about the Y2K bug. Far more real fears unfolded on Sept. 11, 2001. Deseret News and Associated Press writers today continue a series of essays examining the major developments of the past decade and their impact on Utah and beyond.

Utah became a central character during the 2000s in the volatile debate over the way college football decides a national champion.

The debate smoldered throughout American culture even during a painful recession at the end of the decade. If college football, now in its own second century, evolves from a bowl system into a playoff system, people of the Beehive State will have their fingerprints all over the ground-breaking shift of the status quo. If the Bowl Championship Series — disliked by 85 percent of Americans in a Gallup Poll — is toppled, America can thank key Utah figures and events for doing a chunk of the work.

This testy fight involves billions of dollars and pits traditional storied bowl games and six elite athletic conferences in a fight to keep a firm grip on money, prestige and the road to national titles away from leagues like the Mountain West, of which Utah and BYU are charter members.

As recently as Dec. 9, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, had a role in this controversial debate when he voted to support a bill aimed at forcing a college playoff in a meeting of the House Commerce Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee. That bill would make it illegal for the BCS to promote and advertise its system as a national championship.

In October, Utah native Matt Sanderson, whose father owns and operates an Orem funeral home, used his legal skills and experience working on John McCain's presidential campaign to help create Playoff PAC, a lobbying effort in Washington to lead a reform of college football.

Back in July, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chaired a congressional hearing to debate the fairness of the BCS system, a road by which teams from the Pac-10, Big 12, Big Ten, Big East, SEC and ACC are given preferential treatment by having teams from their conferences automatically qualify for spots in the lucrative BCS bowls. Teams from the five other major conferences — including the MWC and Western Athletic Conference, of which Utah State is a member — must jump through many hoops to be considered for a BCS bowl bid.