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February 1, 2010

Does the BCS need government intervention?

So the Obama Justice Department has stated they're going to "look into" the legality of college football's "Bowl Championship Series" (BCS).  I know there have been a lot of complaints about it, from many people, including Republican senators (hello, Orrin Hatch!).  I get the fact that legitimately successful teams have been screwed out of appearing in the "championship" game because they're not on some list of approved teams.  I don't know how that list is set up, either, so I'm certainly not going to base this post on the facts of how college football works.  I have no dog in this hunt, as I haven't followed college football more than in passing for quite a few years.

No, my complaint is this:  Obama, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?  And if it's really Justice people like Attorney General Eric Holder or even some people under him, then I have to ask that he get grip on his people and keep them focused on what they're supposed to be doing.  Since Obama said during the campaign that he didn't like the BCS system, it wouldn't surprise me if he's perfectly ok with Holder doing this, even if he didn't actually instigate the investigation.  It seems like, for Obama, the answer to every problem is "the government should get involved."

Government intervention into college football would be a horrible precedent.
There are two good reasons that Obama should stay out of this:

1) Don't you have anything else you should you should be concentrating on?  Like the economy?  Afghanistan?  Iran & North Korea?  Health Care? No, scratch that last one.  Compared to the huge number of big issues that a President and his people should be dealing with, the college football bowl system seems very picayune.

2) Most importantly, having the government interfere is a huge example of the misuse of government intervention in the private sphere.  What's next?  The government telling colleges how many players they can have on their team?  Or telling the NCAA that the 64-team NCAA basketball tournament isn't fair to those schools who don't qualify?  The government has no business getting involved in something like this.  I didn't like them getting involved with the steroids in baseball issue (Congressional hearings?  Come on!!!) but at least they have the cover that professional baseball is exempt from anti-trust laws, and thus the government is already kind of involved.  They don't even have that fig leaf in this case.

Like I said, I don't follow college football that much, but from everything I've heard, the BCS system royally sucks.  A play-off system would be much better.

Whatever the solution, you know who shouldn't even be at the table discussing it?

The government.

(h/t: Hot Air)

4 comments:

  1. Mmhm! This is a perfect example of something that the government does NOT need to concern itself with. And even if it does, the Obama administration is the wrong part of the government to handle it. The justice system is there for a reason, citizens - and believe it or not, lawyers and judges know more about legal issues than bureaucrats.

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  2. Exactly, Jenn! I love it when you back me up. :)

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  3. Clearly a strategic effort to put me to sleep. Kinda like Bush and the thing about steroids in baseball... ;)

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  4. This is absolutely ridiculous! I agree, there are far more important issues they need to be focusing on than college football. We don't need the government sticking their noses in everything.

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