December 10, 2009

BCS selections came out this last Sunday.  Here are the BCS bowl matchups:

Championship: Alabama (1) v. Texas (2)
Sugar Bowl: Cincinnati (3) v. Florida (5)
Rose Bowl: Oregon (7) v. Ohio State (8)
Fiesta Bowl: TCU (4) v. Boise State (6)
Orange Bowl: Iowa (10) v. Georgia Tech (9)

Interesting that even ESPN’s Pat Forde & Ivan Maisel say that TCU should have gotten into the championship instead of Texas (especially after Texas squeaked by no. 22 ranked Nebraska last Saturday):

So obviously I’m not excited about the TCU/Boise State matchup – I think TCU is a better team than Texas, and should play in the championship.  I think Alabama would still win, but I think it would make for a better competition.  But that’s not the case, so whatever.  We will just have to hope (for the sake of the non-BCS conferences) that this year’s Fiesta Bowl isn’t a ratings disaster.

Anyways, although I do like to debate the merits (or lack thereof) of the BCS system, the real reason I started writing this post was because yesterday a subcommitte in the House (as in Congress) approved legislation aimed at forcing a college playoff system.  Now, as I’ve discussed earlier, I’m not so sure that I think the government should be legislating on college football.  But then again, this Congress has made it pretty clear that they have no problem reaching into whatever sector of American life they want.

As of one the congressmen pushing this bill, Bobby Rush (D, IL), pointed out, Congress is capable of “walk[ing] across the street and chew[ing] gum at the same time” – that is, even though they have a lot of other legislation going on, discussing the BCS system isn’t going to take away from those other issues.

So even though I don’t think that legislation is the right means to a playoff system, I like the end.  And the legislation still has a long ways to go.  Wednesday’s vote was simply to pass the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s commerce, trade and consumer protection subcommittee.  We’ll see where we go from here.

Athletics, Current Events, Politics

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