Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, believes the Bowl Championship Series “consistently misfires” and plans to do something about it, according to the Associated Press.
Barton, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, plans to produce legislation that would force college football to adopt a playoff system to determine its national champion.
The bill, which amazingly has co-sponsors in Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill. and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, “will prohibit the marketing, promotion and advertising of a postseason game as a ‘national championship’ football game, unless it is the result of a playoff system,” according to the AP.
Do we have two wars going on? Is the country deeply in debt? Are we trying to discover alternative fuels and restore some resepect in the world?
Granted, President-elect Barack Obama went on 60 Minutes and announced that he would add a National Championship playoff if given the opportunity to run college football.
And also granted, I’d love to see a college football playoff replace the hopelessly flawed BCS system. But enough to watch elected officials propose bills and push legislation?
Please tell me these people have more important things to do.
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It’s no coincidence that Barton represents University of Texas country. I think those people are also calling for the Texas National Guard to be mobilized and invade Oklahoma. They paid to have that banner flown over the game last week.
Correct. I should have noted that in my post. I understand, Texas got screwed. A half-dozen teams this season could make an argument that they got screwed.
The BCS sucks. It constantly leaves room for situations like this…
Still – Congressional involvement? It’s one thing for Congress to get involved in the steroid situation. It’s another for them to demand playoffs for college football.
Rep. Barton needs to grow up and do his job.
“Texas got screwed” might be an understatement. The Longhorns finished the season 11-1, the same as Oklahoma. Texas beat Oklahoma 45-35 during the regular season.
Oklahoma won the Big 12 south due to edging out Texas in the BCS computer rankings by 0.9351 to 0.9223 (the fifth tie-breaker). That sent Oklahoma to the Big 12 championship game last week against Missouri- Texas got to sit home and watch two teams they beat play for their conference championship. (which subsequently allowed Oklahoma to get the national championship game)
A bitter pill to swallow for anyone. For Texans… it’s worse than insulting momma.
On the bigger topic, I totally agree with you. I think Congress’ involvement with the drug situation is highly dubious and this is just downright stupid. But, all politics are local. And Barton is probably just doing what his constituents are demanding he do. If only someone would explain to them that regulating inter-state football play wasn’t a power the Constitution granted to the legislature.
Yes, but Texas lost to Texas Tech. And Texas Tech got annihilated by Oklahoma–later in the season. So much of the Championships/Bowls seems to depend on what you did towards the end of the season, rather than earlier.
Doesn’t necessarily make a ton of sense–but if Texas got in, couldn’t Texas Tech make the argument of getting screwed too, since they beat Texas?
Texas Tech has an argument, but they fell away in the 3rd or 4th tiebreaker. Plus, nobody expects them to be good so they get ignored. The boys in Lubbock are certainly wondering how they can go 11-1 and be totally out of the discussion.
U Texas is out of the national championship because they didn’t get to play that Big 12 championship game against Missouri. And they missed that game because of a 0.01 margin in the BCS computer rankings.
In that regards, actually, Barton’s proposal isn’t terribly far off. It does not attempt to abolish the BCS directly, nor does it do anything to try and create a new system. The bill (H.R. 7330) simply states that advertising or marketing a “national champion” outside of a playoff system is deceptive marketing, and shall be prosecuted by the FTC under existing law.
Umm, Texas Tech has no argument because their loss was by about 60 points to Oklahoma. While I would have enjoyed seeing the Red Raiders play for the title, Texas and Oklahoma were each competitive in their losses – they have far more leg to stand on than Texas Tech does.
Texas could still win the Associated Press National Championship. It’s not unheard of to see split national titles in the BCS era. They won’t win the BCS championship, but if it’s so bad, perhaps winning the AP title will be a bigger deal to them anyway.
I don’t think many argue that Barton is wrong in critiquing the BCS. I agree with that completely. It’s whether or not Congress should have a role in any kind of change made to the system. To that question I would answer sure – give them all the voice they want – as soon as they have all of their other work done.
That should happen sometime right around … never.
To be clear, Barton isn’t trying to change the system. His bill simply makes it illegal for BCS to market itself as producing a “national champion” because doing so is fraudulent. The BCS does not have to change at all and continue business as usual.
Given that the BCS (plus the Bowl Alliance and the Bowl Coalition) has failed to clear up anything, I can’t say its the worst idea in the world.
And why would he want to prevent them from marketing it as a national championship game?
Perhaps to get them to change the system?
To a playoff?
Let’s read between the lines a bit here. This is a Longhorn fan pissed because he feels his Longhorns got screwed out of the national title game so he wants to change the system so it would have worked out better for his guys…
Are you saying that the BCS currently produces a legitimate national champion?
If not, then it is might be illegal anyway to advertise the system as a national championship. If not, then I am going to create the ZBCS and award national championships to the team every year whose fans get the most alcohol-related ejections during the season.
Of course Barton would like a playoff. But the news write-ups on this are wildly inaccurate when they state that he actually proposed a bill that would scrap the BCS and create a playoff system. It does no such thing.
No, if we’re being clear–this is a politician who knows he is improving his chances of getting re-elected to his cushy job if he makes it look like he’s trying to do something to help his team.
Isn’t that a politician’s job? To represent his constituents? If the people of the Texas Sixth want their congressman to spent his time whining about college football, then he is doing what they elected him to do.
Yes, the BCS does produce a national champion – just like the AP names a national champion.
Neither Joe Barton nor Sir WhoopAss need to recognize their national champion, but it does, in fact, produce a national champion.
And if they aren’t allowed to market the game as a national championship, well, I would say that would scrap the BCS system…
I think Sir WhoopAss has too much time on his hands.
No, his job is to do what’s in their best interest, not what they want him to do. Otherwise the representatives from Wisconsin would spend every session trying to lower the drinking age to 10 and legalize the sale of Thompson’s Water Seal for consumption at Packers games.
Really trying to increase that Wisconsin readership, eh?
Hey, we’ve started including pictures.