Justice Dept opens Anti-Trust Inquiry of BCS System

[redsmetz]

Just got this blurb from CNN

The Justice Department said in a letter to the NCAA that it has opened an antitrust inquiry into the Bowl Championship Series system.


The BCS excludes some athletic conferences from the formula for choosing schools to play in major bowl games.

Haven't looked for further details yet, so feel free to add them in when they're put out.

[Chip R]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6479279

[redsmetz]

This just in from our correspondent, Roseanne Rosannadana:

The Justice Department has not announced an antitrust inquiry into the BCS. The letter asked for information about the BCS system to help determine if an inquiry should be launched.

Also, the alert should have said the BCS system makes it more difficult for some athletic conferences to qualify for major bowl games, but it does not exclude them.

[WVRed]

I view this the same way I do steroids in sports. Let the sports entity worry about it and stay out of it.

I want a playoff in college football as bad as the next guy, I just don't want my elected officials making that happen. They were elected to take care of more important things.

[LoganBuck]

Check list

1. Fix Economy
2. Get Bin Laden
3. Get the BCS

Obviously things are looking up in DC.

[bucksfan2]

IIRC isn't this Orien Hatch's doing? Also didn't Utah make it to at least one BCS game?

I do want a limited playoff, maybe the best 16 teams, but not a full scale basketball style tournament. But there are times when I do want to see the best two teams slug it one time. If anything else the BCS is better than the former system.

[Slyder]

IIRC isn't this Orien Hatch's doing? Also didn't Utah make it to at least one BCS game?

I do want a limited playoff, maybe the best 16 teams, but not a full scale basketball style tournament. But there are times when I do want to see the best two teams slug it one time. If anything else the BCS is better than the former system.

Thats like saying how would you rather die by 1000000 paper cuts or smothered under Rosie O'Donnell. I would rather there be complaints over who #4 and 5 are at least then 4 teams get a chance ON THE FIELD to prove it, not because some computer believes it.Teams not affected by playoffs can still go to bowls.

[jredmo2]

I view this the same way I do steroids in sports. Let the sports entity worry about it and stay out of it.

I want a playoff in college football as bad as the next guy, I just don't want my elected officials making that happen. They were elected to take care of more important things.

I agree in principle, and I have no problem with fans like you or I pointing this out. But I'm getting tired of this deflection from BCS administrators. At the end of the day, potentially defrauding public university funds (and thus, taxpayer dollars) is a very important case.

It's so easy for BCS exec Bill Hancock to say: "Goodness gracious, with all that's going on in the world right now and with national and state budgets being what they are, it seems like a waste of taxpayers' money to have the government looking into how college football games are played."

By that logic, anybody should be free to do anything illegal or in violation of anti-trust laws, because, goodness gracious, look at all that's going on in the world!

[Chip R]

I want a playoff in college football as bad as the next guy, I just don't want my elected officials making that happen. They were elected to take care of more important things.

They were but it's not like the whole government is going to come to a stop while they look at this. It's probably a couple of lawyers at Justice handling this.

I wonder if the BCS adopts some sort of playoff like an "and one" deal if this probe will be stopped?