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Congressmen tear into BCS
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Two weeks
into the new college football season, the chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee said Thursday the system in which a national
collegiate champion is determined needs to be changed.
"I think you're throwing the baby out with the bath water by allowing
this to continue," Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said of the NCAA's
Bowl Championship Series, which excludes many schools from automatic
bids to compete in the lucrative bowl postseason.
But even one of the most vocal opponents said Congress should not get
involved.
"Whatever issues may exist, it really should be worked among the
university presidents without the intervention of Congress," Tulane
University's president, Scott Cowen, said in advance of Thursday's
hearing. He founded an anti-BCS organization designed to get schools
such as Tulane a better shot at one of the big year-end bowl games.
Former NFL quarterback Steve Young, who played in college at Brigham
Young and for the San Francisco 49ers, among other professional teams,
said the disparities hurt recruiting since athletes will sometimes
choose to attend schools with a better shot of going to a bowl game.
"In soccer, basketball, baseball, tennis, golf, etc., equal access is
granted. Not so in football," he said.
In the system's five-year history, no team from a non-BCS conference has
played in a BCS bowl game. BYU has been the only school from a non-BCS
conference other than Notre Dame to win a national championship since
Army in 1945.
Cowen's Presidential Coalition for Athletic Reform and BCS
representatives will meet Monday in Chicago to discuss the series'
future. The current BCS contract expires after the 2005 season.
Participants hope solutions will emerge
within the next six months to a year. Proposals expected to be brought
to the table include adding another one or two bowl games to the
schedule.
Neither supporters nor detractors of the bowl system expect legislation
to result, although the threat of an antitrust suit brought by a non-BCS
school looms.
BCS supporters say the system does not violate antitrust rules because
it is open to all schools through two at-large bids. Cowen said Thursday
that an antitrust suit is possible if upcoming talks with BCS officials
do not yield satisfactory results.
The BCS was established before the 1998 season to determine the national
champion by matching the best teams in either the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl,
Orange Bowl or Fiesta Bowl.
The champions from the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10
and Southeastern conferences receive automatic bids. There are also two
at-large bids that are open to all Division I-A schools.
Tulane went undefeated in 1998 but was excluded from the BCS bowls when
it finished 11th in the BCS standings.
The projected revenue for the four 2004 BCS games is $118 million, but
only about $6 million will go to the 55 non-BCS schools unless one of
them qualifies for a major bowl game.
"This conglomeration of money and power is having a cascading impact far
beyond major college football, as the de facto exclusion of non-BCS
schools from major bowl games is resulting in those schools having lower
athletic budgets, inferior athletic facilities, and rising deficits,"
said Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the committee's top Democrat.
02/23/2007 10:36 AM
Copyright 2003
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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