Congress and the BCS

[Boz]

For your discussing pleasure......

thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/71475-college-football-playoffs-bill-passes-subcommittee

I suppose I'm in the camp of "Congress has better things to do," but in the end, I don't think they're spending a lot of time on this, so I'm not really all that bunged up about that aspect.

My guess is that everyone on this board likes the spirit of this, in that it encourages the adoption of a playoff system, but I'm curious about the letter of it and whether this is really falls under the purview of the federal government. My opinion is that it doesn't -- the stated FTC provisions seem kind of forced in this case, IMO -- but I am not a lawyer.

Should this ever become law, I wonder if the BCS wouldn't have a pretty good case to challenge the legality of it.

[TBird41]

Dec 10, 2009 9:47:16 GMT -5 Boz said:

For your discussing pleasure......

thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/71475-college-football-playoffs-bill-passes-subcommittee

I suppose I'm in the camp of "Congress has better things to do," but in the end, I don't think they're spending a lot of time on this, so I'm not really all that bunged up about that aspect.

Normally, yeah, I'd agree with you, but the House really doesn't have anything better to do right. The only reason they're in session is b/c they are waiting on the Senate for Healthcare and the appropriations bills. They're in a holding pattern for almost all of the major issues

[rosslynhoya]

Dec 10, 2009 9:47:16 GMT -5 Boz said:

I suppose I'm in the camp of "Congress has better things to do," but in the end, I don't think they're spending a lot of time on this, so I'm not really all that bunged up about that aspect.

I completely disagree. Congress may have better things to do, but I'm pretty sure they have no intention of doing any of them, so they may as well waste their time doing something completely useless and thus non-harmful.

Dec 10, 2009 9:47:16 GMT -5 Boz said:

I'm curious about the letter of it and whether this is really falls under the purview of the federal government.

Have you forgotten the Pelosi Doctrine already? "Since virtually every aspect of the _____ has an effect on interstate commerce, the power of Congress to regulate ____ is essentially unlimited."

A "national" championship is obviously "interstate" in nature, and even if the game were to be played by two schools from the same state in that same state, it would still be watched by people in different states.

Alternatively and much more simply, since the rise of the Good Things school of constitutional interpretation, left-leaning jurists have held that anything that is good is Constitutional. A college football playoff system would be good, therefore it is Constitutional. QED.

Dec 10, 2009 9:47:16 GMT -5 Boz said:

My opinion is that it doesn't -- the stated FTC provisions seem kind of forced in this case, IMO -- but I am not a lawyer.

I hope that some day in the distant future, our descendants will look back on this era and mock us for allowing a pseudo-clergy to rule our lives. "See, back in the dark ages, the common people weren't allowed to know the law, so they were forced to rely upon a priesthood specially trained to communicate with the legal spirits, through augury and haruspicy if need be, to set the daily conditions for life in that primitive time." But grandpa, why couldn't the people just read the law for themselves? "Oh no, the priesthood decided that the law couldn't be written in the people's language, it had to be written in a special language that only other priests could understand." Oh, you mean like Joseph Smith and his golden tablets? "Exactly! and the law could never be read the same way twice, even by the same person."

Ah, the fun could go on forever, but this doesn't need to be kicked over to B&G....

[theexorcist]

The BCS means a lot of money to schools. Obscene amounts of money. This money gets reflected in items such as construction, which involves local businesses. It matters if that money gets spent in Tuscaloosa and not Fort Worth. If the means for allocating that money aren't justified, then there's a problem.

So, an example (not perfect, but an attempt).

Let's say the a nonprofit organization gave out an award to the "best ten colleges in the country" - awards that came with it lots of fanfare and a massive spike in applications and alumni donors and research dollars and which every media outlet reported.

Now let's say that the award committee ranked every school on a 1-100 scale. And let's say that schools in the Ivy League and the Big Ten got a ten point bonus because, every time those schools won, media interest in the award spiked substantially.

Wouldn't this be a total crock?

[SFHoya99]

The law's ridiculous, but it is kind of fun.

Personally, I am amazed that these schools don't see that a playoff -- one that is not played at bowls except maybe the finals -- gives them a massive revenue boost. More games for the top teams, and you can make them home games. Some channel would easily pay more than $20M per game to broadcast them, which is about the payout for a bowl right now.

Or am I wrong in that last point? I guess some of these schools -- Tuscaloosa -- may not have the corporate level of buyer.

[jgalt]

IT DOESNT MATTER WHAT THEY "SHOULD" BE DOING AMERICA COULD BE SOME UTOPIAN PARADISE WITH NO PROBLEMS FOR ANYONE AND CANDY FALLING FROM THE SKY!!!

THEY HAVE NO RIGHT TO DO ANY OF THIS!!!!! THEIR RIGHT TO CONTROL COLLEGE ATHLETICS IS NOT ENUMERATED IN THE CONSTITUTION AND IS THEREFORE AT THE VERY LEAST RESERVED FOR THE STATES.

As you can see i was very upset when heard about this yesterday. You know what other countries allow or have allowed the government to control their ahletics? The People Republic of China, The Soviet Union, Soviet Ukraine, Romania, East Germany.

[EasyEd]

I don't care who is the college champion and neither should Congress.

[TBird41]

Dec 10, 2009 13:22:21 GMT -5 jgalt said:

IT DOESNT MATTER WHAT THEY "SHOULD" BE DOING AMERICA COULD BE SOME UTOPIAN PARADISE WITH NO PROBLEMS FOR ANYONE AND CANDY FALLING FROM THE SKY!!!

THEY HAVE NO RIGHT TO DO ANY OF THIS!!!!! THEIR RIGHT TO CONTROL COLLEGE ATHLETICS IS NOT ENUMERATED IN THE CONSTITUTION AND IS THEREFORE AT THE VERY LEAST RESERVED FOR THE STATES.

As you can see i was very upset when heard about this yesterday. You know what other countries allow or have allowed the government to control their ahletics? The People Republic of China, The Soviet Union, Soviet Ukraine, Romania, East Germany.

Also, every other country in the world. The U.S. (and every other country's) Olympic Committees says hello. And so does MLB and it's anti-trust exemption.

[rosslynhoya]

Dec 10, 2009 17:04:07 GMT -5 TBird41 said:

Dec 10, 2009 13:22:21 GMT -5 jgalt said:

IT DOESNT MATTER WHAT THEY "SHOULD" BE DOING AMERICA COULD BE SOME UTOPIAN PARADISE WITH NO PROBLEMS FOR ANYONE AND CANDY FALLING FROM THE SKY!!!

THEY HAVE NO RIGHT TO DO ANY OF THIS!!!!! THEIR RIGHT TO CONTROL COLLEGE ATHLETICS IS NOT ENUMERATED IN THE CONSTITUTION AND IS THEREFORE AT THE VERY LEAST RESERVED FOR THE STATES.

As you can see i was very upset when heard about this yesterday. You know what other countries allow or have allowed the government to control their ahletics? The People Republic of China, The Soviet Union, Soviet Ukraine, Romania, East Germany.

Also, every other country in the world. The U.S. (and every other country's) Olympic Committees says hello. And so does MLB and it's anti-trust exemption.

While I'll never stop someone from poking fun at a breathless libertarian rant, the USOC is a non-governmental organization with no federal funding and no federal oversight (or, at least no more oversight than other federally chartered non-profits, e.g., GU). Unlike jgalt's examples, America has generally practiced separation of sport and state, and if you like, you can count the "antitrust exemption" for MLB a re-inforcement of that separation. It prohibits the feds from interfering with Major League Baseball, and it's the constant threat to revoke that ban that's the unwarranted governmental intrusion into the world of sport.

[The Stig]

Dec 10, 2009 9:57:39 GMT -5 TBird41 said:

Dec 10, 2009 9:47:16 GMT -5 Boz said:

For your discussing pleasure......

thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/71475-college-football-playoffs-bill-passes-subcommittee

I suppose I'm in the camp of "Congress has better things to do," but in the end, I don't think they're spending a lot of time on this, so I'm not really all that bunged up about that aspect.

Normally, yeah, I'd agree with you, but the House really doesn't have anything better to do right. The only reason they're in session is b/c they are waiting on the Senate for Healthcare and the appropriations bills. They're in a holding pattern for almost all of the major issues

This.

If the Senate did this right now, I'd be appalled like the rest of you. But right now the House is just waiting around for the Senate to get through its 6+ month backlog of work.