U.S. Rep. Joe Barton's anti-BCS bill passes House subcommittee

WASHINGTON - College football fans aching for a playoff system won a small victory Wednesday, when a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee passed a bill aimed at bringing down the Bowl Championship Series.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, is not the BCS-destroying solution envisioned by millions of college football fans. But if it were to eventually become law, it would turn up the pressure on the BCS by preventing the group from calling its title game a "national championship game" unless it was the result of a playoff system.

The BCS, which started in 1998, was supposed to quell any controversy over determining a college football champion. But critics say the format has only muddled the situation further and left many schools at a disadvantage. BCS officials and other defenders of the system say it has a good record of producing a championship matchup and is constantly being adjusted for fairness.

Barton and others reiterated concerns about the system, though, during a jocular hourlong hearing that featured a number of references to team loyalties. Tradition-rich, powerhouse schools and conference receive the bulk of the BCS's multimillion payouts, and critics say smaller schools, such as TCU and Boise State, have little opportunity to participate in the title game.

"What our friends and fans need to know about the Bowl Championship Series is that it is not about choosing the champion or competition on the gridiron," Barton said. "It is about revenue sharing for the schools that are in the BCS conferences."

Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., acknowledged that his support of Barton's bill stemmed largely from Nebraska's last-second loss to Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game and that he never envisioned legislating a college football playoff. Terry said the game, which included a controversial addition of time that allowed Texas to kick a game-winning field goal, showed him the BCS is "solely about money."

Subcommittee chairman Bobby Rush, D-Ill., added an amendment to further tweak the BCS. It prevents the BCS from finding a loophole, such as calling the title game "The Big Game" or "The Final Game." The amendment also ensures that in a playoff system, all teams, regardless of conference affiliation, would have an equal shot at participating and that all conferences would receive equal compensation.

Both the amendment and bill passed a voice vote, with only Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., dissenting.

But while the hearing featured no supporters of the BCS, it showed that it might be difficult to build a large coalition of support for the legislation. Three congressmen said that even if the BCS is wrong and unfair, Congress has no business delving into the matter. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., was particularly dismissive of the effort to reform college football.

"BCS, to me, means business, consumers and seniors," he said. "That's what I think we should be focusing on - not college football."

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