Game-changing Call to College Football: Playoff
John Swofford, the coordinator of the BCS, rejected the idea of switching to a playoff, telling a House panel that it would threaten the existence of celebrated bowl games. Sponsorships and TV revenue that now go to bowl games would instead be spent on playoff games, “meaning that it will be very difficult for any bowl, including the current BCS bowls, which are among the oldest and most established in the games history, to survive,” Swofford said.
Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, who has introduced legislation that would prevent the NCAA from calling a game a national championship unless its the outcome of a playoff, bluntly warned Swofford: “If we dont see some action in the next two months, on a voluntary switch to a playoff system, then you will see this bill move.”
After the hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee commerce, trade and consumer protection subcommittee, Swofford told reporters: “Any time Congress speaks, you take it seriously.”
Yet it is unclear whether lawmakers will try to legislate how college football picks its No. 1 before the first kickoff of the fall season. Congress is grappling with a crowded agenda of budgets, health care overhaul and climate change, and though President Barack Obama favors a playoff, he hasnt made it a legislative priority.
College footballs multimillion-dollar television contract also could be an obstacle.
The BCSs new four-year deal with ESPN, worth $125 million per year, begins with the 2011 bowl games. That deal was negotiated using the current BCS format. While ESPN has said it would not stand in the way if the BCS wanted to change, the new deal allows the BCS to put off making major changes until the 2014 season.
Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law expert at George Washington University, said the legislation could result in a court challenge.
“This is a rare effort by Congress to prevent people from using what is a common description of sporting events,” he said in a telephone interview. The legislation, he said, “may run afoul of the contractual agreements between parties, wiping out benefits that have already been paid for by companies.”
Barton, the top Republican on the committee, said at the hearing that efforts to tinker with the BCS were bound to fail.
“Its like communism,” he said. “You cant fix it.”
He quipped that the BCS should drop the “C” from its name because it doesnt represent a true championship.
“Call it the BS system,” he said to laughter.
Under the BCS, some conferences get automatic bids to participate while others do not. Conferences that get an automatic bid – the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC – get about $18 million each, far more than the non-conference schools. Swofford is also commissioner of the ACC.
“How is this fair?” asked the subcommittee chairman, Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois, who has co-sponsored Bartons bill. “How can we justify this system … are the big guys getting together and shutting out the little guys?”
“I think it is fair, because it represents the marketplace,” Swofford responded.
Craig Thompson, commissioner of the Mountain West Conference, which does not get an automatic bid, called the money distribution system “grossly inequitable.”
The MWC has proposed a playoff and hired a Washington firm to lobby Congress for changes to the BCS. The proposal calls for scrapping the BCS standings and creating a 12-member committee to pick which teams receive at-large bids, and to select and seed the eight teams chosen for the playoff. The BCS has previously discussed, and dismissed, the idea of using a selection committee.