United Liberty

Those of you that have been reading UL for awhile know that I’m a college football fan (Go Dawgs!), however, the federal government getting involved in the controversy surrounding the the BCS seems like a waste of time:

The Obama administration is considering several steps that would review the legality of the controversial Bowl Championship Series, the Justice Department said in a letter Friday to a senator who had asked for an antitrust review.

In the letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch, obtained by The Associated Press, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote that the Justice Department is reviewing Hatch’s request and other materials to determine whether to open an investigation into whether the BCS violates antitrust laws.

“Importantly, and in addition, the administration also is exploring other options that might be available to address concerns with the college football postseason,” Weich wrote, including asking the Federal Trade Commission to review the legality of the BCS under consumer protection laws.

Several lawmakers and many critics want the BCS to switch to a playoff system, rather than the ratings system it uses to determine the teams that play in the championship game.

Is Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) still upset about Utah not getting a shot at the BCS championship back in 2008? Aren’t there other, more important things the bureaucrats inside the federal government can pay some attention to?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not the biggest fan of the BCS either, but getting the government involved, whether it be Congress or the Justice Department, is going hurt the game more than anything else. Not to mention the concerns that come with a playoff system.

George Will, the best columnist we will read in our lifetime, sets his sites on congressional involvement in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS):

Rep. Joe Barton, who considers the BCS part of the axis of evil, is incandescent and prepared. In January, this 13-term Republican, whose district includes Cowboys Stadium and nearly nuzzles TCU in Fort Worth, introduced the College Football Playoff Act of 2009, which says: It shall be unlawful to “promote, market, or advertise” a postseason Division I football game as a national championship game unless it is “the final game of a single elimination post-season playoff system” for which all Division I teams are, at the beginning of the season, equally eligible.

Barton believes in limited government, but not so limited that it cannot right outrageous wrongs, such as the absence of a playoff. Bipartisanship lives: Barack Obama, who wants to fix everything — health care, the climate, the pothole on your street, college football — also wants a playoff.
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The BCS has effectively created a two-tier bowl system — the big four bowls plus the national championship game, with their gigantic television contracts, and the 29 much less profitable bowls — which is unfair. It also is none of Congress’s business.

I’ve gotten slack on updating this, but after four weeks of college football, we have some emerging leaders in the United Liberty College Football Challenge.

Brad Warbiany of Liberty Papers fame is running away from the rest of the pack, even though his Purdue Boilermakers aren’t. Our own Matt Wittlief is in striking distince. Right behind him is Steve Handel, husband of Georgia’s Secretary of State and gubernatorial hopeful.

Here how it looks thus far:

1. bwarbiany (Brad Warbiany) - 581 points
2. Winning Ugly (Matt Wittlief) -  542
3. Bring It On (Steve Handel) - 541
4. JaseLiberty (Jason Pye) - 508
5. Marcus’ Picks (Marcus Adams) - 467
6. CarpeForem (Daniel N. Adams) - 447
7. rockjohnson98 (Brett Bittner) - 421
8. Liberty Dawgs (Tyler Burgess) - 410

We’ll do another update in a couple of weeks. The winner gets a $25 gift card to the resturant of their choice.

Since football season is right around the corner, I started a College Football Challenge over at ESPN. You can join the group here. The password to join is liberty.

For those of you who may not know, I’m a college football fan. I spend my Saturdays in the fall on my couch watching the Georgia Bulldogs. There are probably more productive things to do that are much less annoying to my wife than my yelling at Mark Richt through my television, but I’ve yet to discover them.

It’s not too often that politics and college football intersect, but I came across a post at Dawg Sports, a blog run by a friend and fellow UGA fan, that caught my eye.

I just caught an alert on C-SPAN that they will be airing coverage tomorrow of the House Energy and Commerce hearing on college football tomorrow. The Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection will hold a hearing titled, “The Bowl Championship Series: Money and Other Issues of Fairness for Publicly Financed Universities.”

Are you kidding me?