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No slack for BCS from Capitol Hill
By The Associated Press
A U.S. senator wants Bowl Championship Series leaders to brief him before
deciding whether to hold more Congressional hearings on whether smaller
schools are being treated unfairly.
The issue was debated Sunday in New Orleans and university presidents and
chancellors came up with a process to change the current bowl system.
Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, wrote a letter Friday to University of Oregon
president Dave Frohnmayer, a member of the BCS Presidential Oversight
Committee, asking for a briefing and "any plans the BCS had to make
postseason college football more accessible and fair."
"I am troubled by the current system and believe it is unfair to colleges
and universities that are not members of the BCS," Bennett wrote in a letter
obtained by The Associated Press.
Bennett, the chairman of the Joint Economic Committee in Congress, also said
that he is interested in holding hearings on the issue. The House and Senate
Judiciary Committees have already held hearings on the BCS.
"We believe this is a matter that we can work out among ourselves,"
Frohnmayer said Monday. "It is very hard to figure out legislative or
political solutions to what are issues among colleagues here. We trust that
will become well understood."
Tulane president Scott Cowen, the leader of the Coalition for Athletics
Reform, remained confident that government intervention won't be necessary.
"I think Congress is waiting to see if we can resolve these issues in a
cooperative manner," Cowen said. "It has always been our desire to do that.
... We are on a path to do it."
Commissioners from the 11 Division I-A conferences will spend the next 90
days coming up with recommendations for changes to the BCS and present them
to presidents from schools in each conference.
The current BCS contract expires after the 2006 bowls and negotiations will
begin next year on a new system.
Created in 1998 by the six most powerful conferences, the BCS guarantees the
champions of those leagues - the Big East, ACC, SEC, Big 12, Big Ten and
Pac-10 - will play in one of the four most lucrative postseason bowl games,
leaving only two at-large berths.
Smaller schools complain that the BCS makes it impossible for them to win
the national championship and puts them at a financial and recruiting
disadvantage.
The BCS bowls generate more than $110 million a year for the big
conferences. The BCS gives about $6 million a year to smaller conferences.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff plans to discuss if the BCS violates
any laws at a meeting next month of members of the Antitrust Committee of
the National Association of Attorneys General.
"Obviously there is an exclusive agreement in this case that appears unfair
on paper to a whole lot of programs," said Shurtleff, who would prefer the
sides resolve the issue themselves. "Whether an antitrust violation could be
alleged is clearly up in the air. That is what it smacks of and smells
like."
Frohnmayer, the former attorney general of Oregon, said "this is not a legal
matter."
�2003 The Associated Press. Bonesville.net contributed to this report. All rights reserved.
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02.23.07 11:02 AM
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