A bill barring the NCAA from using the phrase “national championship game unless such game is the culmination of a fair and equitable playoff system” had passed the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection where, one presumes, it will die a deserved death. And, thankfully, “There is no Senate version, although Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has pressed for a Justice Department antitrust investigation into the BCS.”
I join President Obama and most right-thinking Americans in favoring a playoff system, a position I maintain despite my Alabama Crimson Tide being ranked #1 in the BCS and set to vie for their 13th national championship on January 7.
But this is not a job for Congress. As Steven Taylor (whose Texas Longhorns will also be in the game) points out, this is not only a ridiculous waste of time given the state of the economy, the budget, two major wars, health care, and all the rest but would seem rather obviously to “run afoul of that thing I like to call the First Amendment.”
There are issues in higher education, intercollegiate athletics, and sports in general where the national government has a legitimate role. But this isn’t one of them.
