http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091209/ap_on_sp_ot/us_bcs_congress

Quote :

"WASHINGTON – A House subcommittee approved legislation Wednesday aimed at forcing college football to switch to a playoff system to determine a national champion, over the objections of some lawmakers who said Congress had more pressing matters on its plate. The bill, which faces long odds of becoming law, would ban the promotion of a postseason NCAA Division I football game as a national championship unless that title contest is the result of a playoff. The measure passed by voice vote in a House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee, with one audible "no," from Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga. "With all due respect, I really think we have more important things to spend our time on," Barrow said before the vote, although he stressed he didn't like the current Bowl Championship Series, either. The bill's sponsor, GOP Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, said the BCS system is unfair and won't change unless prompted by Congress. The vote came three days after the BCS selections were announced, including the Jan. 7 national title game between No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Texas. In a statement before the vote, BCS executive director Bill Hancock said, "With all the serious matters facing our country, surely Congress has more important issues than spending taxpayer money to dictate how college football is played." The subcommittee chairman, Rep. Bobby Rush, an Illinois Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, said, "We can walk and chew gum at the same time." Yet Barrow wasn't alone in criticizing his colleagues' priorities; Reps. Zach Space, D-Ohio, and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., made similar arguments. Space said that with people facing tough times, the decision to focus on college football sends the "wrong message." The bill has a tough road ahead, given the wide geographic representation of schools in the six conferences — the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC — that get automatic BCS bowl bids. "The schools in those six conferences, which have such a huge financial benefit from the system, have enormous clout," said Gary Roberts, dean of the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis and a sports law expert. "I don't see anything coming from this." The current college bowl system features a championship game between the two top teams in the BCS standings, based on two polls and six computer rankings. Eight other schools get the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose bowls. Under the BCS, the champions of those six big conference get automatic bids, while other conferences don't. Although Alabama and Texas finished with undefeated seasons, so did several other teams that will not get a chance to play for the title game, including TCU, Cincinnati and Boise State. Each will get to play in a BCS bowl: Cincinnati is the Big East champ; TCU, champion of the Mountain West, gets a bid awarded to a nonautomatic qualifying conference that meets certain criteria; and Boise State, winner of the Western Athletic Conference, gets an at-large bid. At a May hearing, Barton warned college football officials that unless they took action toward a playoff system within two months, Congress probably would act. It took a little longer, but the timing of this week's vote isn't exactly a coincidence. "Part of it is because BCS is in the news," Barton said before the meeting. There is no Senate version, although Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has pressed for a Justice Department antitrust investigation into the BCS. Shortly after his election last year, Obama said there should be a playoff system. "I'm going to throw my weight around a little bit," Obama said at the time. "I think it's the right thing to do." "

12/9/2009 12:48:52 PM

Shrimp Moving Through my Digestive Tract

12/9/2009 12:50:18 PM

Gotta start somewhere

John Kerry got the MLB package added to cable providers (used to be DirectTV only) in like a week's time

12/9/2009 12:51:13 PM

Socialist!

12/9/2009 12:53:58 PM

stuff like this makes me so fucking mad. way to use your time, congress.

12/9/2009 1:09:11 PM

Quote :

""We can walk and chew gum at the same time.""

Fucking Awesome

12/9/2009 1:16:01 PM

This is the only useful thing Congress has done all year.

12/9/2009 1:16:36 PM

I'd rather them waste time on this instead of destroying health care.

12/9/2009 1:17:48 PM

^ you got my vote for president (if i voted)

12/9/2009 1:28:07 PM

Ah, the old "waste of our time" excuse. How many days a year do those guys work anyway? Or maybe they have so much time off that the little time they actually do get to work must be focused on the things that matter the most.

Plus you're just inviting people to scrutinize everything they have looked at over the years. I'm sure there's something on the list that's less important than a college football playoff.

As for schools that automatically qualify for a BCS bowl bid getting upset? Can't they just automatically qualify for a playoff spot? Hell, they might even win a game and get a payout from more than one game.

I guess the true money argument comes from:
1) The ACC automatic qualifier loses to the #1 in the first round. Money from the first round divvied up in the ACC.
2) The SEC gets to divvy up the money from several games in the first round, and several games in the second round, etc.
3) SEC uses the huge wad of cash to ensure that they are always on top in football.

[Edited on December 9, 2009 at 1:43 PM. Reason : -]

12/9/2009 1:39:58 PM

I find it kind of ironic that a congressman from Texas is sponsoring this when Texas is in the championship game thanks to the Bowl Computer Series.

Quote :

"3) SEC uses the huge wad of cash to ensure that they are always on top in football."

Is this not what the BCS does right now?

[Edited on December 9, 2009 at 1:48 PM. Reason : a]

12/9/2009 1:46:40 PM

if this passes..... good things happen.

12/9/2009 1:53:52 PM

16 teams, 11 conf champs, 5 at large, play on top seeds home fields

Just fucking do it already.

12/9/2009 2:04:53 PM

^^^ Sure you realize this... but we can only assume he backed it when Texas got screwed by Oklahoma last year.

12/9/2009 2:10:30 PM

The year a team in your state gets selected is the year to bring it up. Otherwise you look like a whiner.

12/9/2009 2:15:15 PM

The whiner introduced it on 1/9/09

12/9/2009 2:46:06 PM

Quote :

"stuff like this makes me so fucking mad. way to use your time, congress."

FYI Our Congress covers a vast variety of topics INCLUDING SPORTS RELATED ISSUES. No disrespect, but a pinch of education and research in this area would help you deal with this issue a little better. It serves like a 'silver lining' so to speak.

12/9/2009 3:52:46 PM

i'm actually happy they're attempting to do something related to an area of interest for me (and millions of others). lord knows we've been screwed two ways from sunday enough already by these people supposedly representing us

12/9/2009 4:01:08 PM

12/9/2009 4:33:02 PM

This was one meeting of one subcommittee. That's, what?, 13 people? Out of over 500? This committee meets specifically to discuss issues like this (antitrust, for one). It's not like the whole house is sitting around arguing about this.

12/9/2009 4:55:47 PM

but guys ohio state will not get as many glamorous bowl appearances if they are knocked out by a SEC or big 12 team in the 2nd round

12/9/2009 6:28:39 PM

Quote :

"16 teams, 11 conf champs, 5 at large"

I think this would be so bad ass. This year would be:

1/16 - Bama/ECU
8/9 - tOSU/GT
5/12 - UF/PSU
4/13 - TCU/BYU

3/14 - Cincy/Mia
6/11 - Boise/VT
7/10 - Oregon/Iowa
2/15 - Texas/CMich

12/9/2009 9:32:13 PM

^

i would be glued to the action

12/9/2009 9:38:46 PM

Miami over Cincy first round

12/9/2009 9:44:17 PM

really, the only problem i can think of is that if Bama won, they would have played 17 games. But there's only a handful of teams that can possibly get to 17. If you take one game out of the OOC schedule, then you leave teams like State at 4-7, and we'd have to go 6-5 to make a bowl, but we would have had to go 7-5 this year anyways, so 6-5 isn't much different.

Also, if first round started this weekend (maybe Fri/Sat games?), 2nd round would be the 18th/19th, then 24th/25th, and give an extra couple days for the Jan 3rd or whenever you want to have it championship. With all the other crappy bowls during the week

[Edited on December 9, 2009 at 9:55 PM. Reason : ~]

12/9/2009 9:53:54 PM

whats wrong with 17 games??

12/9/2009 10:01:04 PM

i fail to see the problem with 17 games as well.

12/9/2009 10:31:37 PM

whats wrong with 17 games??

12/9/2009 11:19:43 PM

If they can take a week and look at steroids, they can take a few minutes and deal with a playoff system. Whether it passes or not, saying there isn't enough time to deal with it because there's other stuff to do is bullshit.

12/9/2009 11:28:19 PM

going from 13 games to 17 games in college is a pretty big deal.

12/9/2009 11:38:42 PM

[Edited on December 9, 2009 at 11:45 PM. Reason : oops dbl]

12/9/2009 11:45:01 PM

only 5% percent of teams would have more teams than the current system (if they qualified for a bowl)

12/9/2009 11:45:01 PM

^^^ 14 games to 17 games for conference champ game participants

and it doesn't have to begin with 16 teams. they could start it with 8 and it would still be pretty bad ass. hell do the plus 1 model and just do a final four. anything is better than the current setup of national champion ambiguity.

12/9/2009 11:54:28 PM

Fuck this. A playoff will not work. This is stupid.

12/10/2009 12:31:41 AM

Why can't we go back to 11 game regular seasons like we had a few years ago. That way we don't have teams playing 2 D-IAA teams and you have to actually have a winning record to be bowl eligible (although if the playoff system works out the bowls would be done for). I think that they could hold the games at the old bowl sites, that way there is some resemblance of it being a neutral site, similar to the NCAA tournament. The Meineke Car Care Bowl can be the site for a 1st round game (essentially a Sweet 16 matchup in a 16 team playoff) in the East region. Peach Bowl can be the site for a 2nd round game (Elite Eight). Orange Bowl can be the site for a national semifinal game (Final Four). The Sugar Bowl (fairly centrally located) or the Rose Bowl can be the national championship game.

12/10/2009 12:40:39 AM

bout damn time

12/10/2009 12:57:30 AM

Quote :

"16 teams, 11 conf champs, 5 at large I think this would be so bad ass. This year would be: 1/16 - Bama/ECU 8/9 - tOSU/GT 5/12 - UF/PSU 4/13 - TCU/BYU 3/14 - Cincy/Mia 6/11 - Boise/VT 7/10 - Oregon/Iowa 2/15 - Texas/CMich "

No love for Troy?



[Edited on December 10, 2009 at 2:32 AM. Reason : asdf]

12/10/2009 2:31:23 AM

1-AA has a 16-team playoff where they play 16-17 games and it works well for them. Those schools are smaller with less players, less resources, and less money so why in the fuck can't 1-A do it?

12/10/2009 2:50:07 AM

economically speaking a playoff is a BAD idea. just saying.

12/10/2009 2:50:26 AM

^not to mention it will cheapen the best regular season in sports.

12/10/2009 2:52:29 AM

Playoffs for 11 Conference Champs + 5 at-large... each round game is considered a "bowl"

and then traditional lower-tier Bowl games for the rest.

12/10/2009 2:55:01 AM

traditional lower tier bowl games would be relegated to postseason NIT-esque status and people would care about them even less than they do now.

12/10/2009 3:14:44 AM

More good football to watch is not a bad thing.

12/10/2009 3:17:34 AM

It is when it makes the regular season not matter as much.

12/10/2009 3:20:09 AM

This isn't the NBA where the regular season doesn't matter.

12/10/2009 3:24:34 AM

It will matter less if there are playoffs.

12/10/2009 3:30:43 AM

Quote :

"stuff like this makes me so fucking mad. way to use your time, congress."

worst post of '09

12/10/2009 3:37:54 AM

Quote :

"It is when it makes the regular season not matter as much."

So I guess the NCAA BB regular season doesn't matter? Remember, to get in, you'd have to win your conference or have a significant number of wins to get an at-large bid. Plus, more wins = better seeding. This is a retarded argument, and I can't believe a "regular person" would be against a playoff.

And talk to Cincy or TCU about making the regular season not matter. "Hey, good job on going undefeated, but you're not a program with history, so have fun in the Fiesta Bowl."

12/10/2009 6:22:25 AM

Quote :

"Fuck this. A playoff will not work. This is stupid. "

Since obviously it does not work for the pussier I-AA teams......

yeah "fuck this"; handing championship games and "prestige" bowls to a select few teams based on computer calculations and
voting polls which are inflenced by media biasness towards certain teams is a MUCH better system.

Quote :

"1-AA has a 16-team playoff where they play 16-17 games and it works well for them. Those schools are smaller with less players, less resources, and less money so why in the fuck can't 1-A do it? "

cause...
cause...
cause...

texas, The Ohio State, USC, and SEC would not have as many glory games handed to them every year. If the MLB did the same
shit we would see the yankees in the world series every other year or the fucking Pats if it were NFL.

12/10/2009 9:24:35 AM

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/football/ncaa/12/09/bcs.bill.ap/index.html

There should be a way to incorporate the bowls into all of this. People will pay to go see their 7-5 / 8-4 team play even if they're not in the playoff.

12/10/2009 1:17:54 PM