US Senator's Orin Hatch (R-Utah) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) have sent a letter to BCS Administrator Bill Hancock looking for answers to their concerns. Bill Hancock has publicly acknowledged the letter, and will answer it in due time.

I'm looking forward to taking a longer look at the letter. I sure do think that Congress has more important things to do, with all the issues facing our country. The BCS is fair. Access is fair. Revenue is distributed fairly. And frankly, we welcome the opportunity to tell our story every chance we get.

A look at the questions contained in the letter, there significance and what is already known about the answers to the questions after the jump.

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BCS might be facing multi-hundred million dollar lawsuit says Utah's Mark Shurtleff at this years National Association of Attorneys General spring convention.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Christine Varney, the chief of the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division were listening, as Shurtleff also presented a 90 page report to the Depertment of Justice.

Really not much new here, just the same political insiders making stands that are known. The headway into the Department of Justice is notable.

We may be headed towards the end of college football as we now know it.

Late last year Playoff PAC launched to promote political pressure againt the BCS. Well, the first quarter tax filings are out and they have raised $5,974.

"We recognize that we have more work ahead of us on fundraising," Playoff PAC official Matt Sanderson told The Hill.

To be fair this does not include the funds recieved after a campeign ad ran in select cities (mostly in Utah and Idaho) during the BCS national championship game. It also does not reflect the cost of those ads.

That's right. The movement to enact what is alleged to be the opinions of over 2/3 of the total population has raised enough money to, well actually not much. That, and after years of research and watching repeated attempts appear and then fizzle out after the much hoped for grass roots rally fails to emerge to support the cause, I am left suspecting the desire for substancive change is such a popular idea.

Most people want a smooth trasition based on freemarket pressures to yield to the temptation of bracket creep ... one could say a BCS evolution.

Playoff PAC takes credit for building the pressure on the BCS and forcing their hand.

"In spending just $1,700, we shaped the public debate and forced the BCS to spend six-figure sums on new full-time staffers and consultants, including …Fleischer," Sanderson said. "If we can accomplish all of that on a shoestring budget, we will accomplish much more once our fundraising operation is up and running."

Personally, I take credit for that. And on a much smaller budget.

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Subtitle: Should the Fiesta Bowl or Cotton Bowl be a BCS bowl?

What is happening:

I was busy earlier this week and was about to post this thread when the news of the Department of Justice's interest in the BCS broke. That is the second hit in the 1-2 punch the BCS legal team took this week.

The first is a story that has been on my back burner since it broke ion December 18th (mid bowl season!) when the Fiesta Bowl was accused of reimbursing employees for campaign contributions.

As a tax exempt non-profit organization the Fiesta Bowl is not permitted to make campaign contributions. Just because the amount is a mere $38,000 and most of the funds went to defeated presidential candidate John McCain does not make this any less of a criminal offense with the possibility of misdemeanor and felony charges. This pales behind the $4 Million the spent legally since 2000 on lobbyists and pampering BCS officials to secure thier spot as a BCS bowl.

A week later the Fiesta Bowl had appeared to put these claims to bed.

This past week Arizona election officials stated they would begin an independent investigation into the Fiesta Bowl's behaviors. The Fiesta Bowl is accused of not providing state officials with all records that they were asked to provide. Playoff PAC is credited as tenaciously pursuing state officials to launch an investigation. I am inclined to agree with Dr. Saturday that this is not half bad for an upstart PAC less than 3 months old.

So what gives?

Why does the Fiesta Bowl feel the need to spent so much time and money to secure their spot? Aren't they one of the big BCS bowls?

As much murkiness as there is about the criteria used for automatic qualifications for conferences, this is nothing compared to the blatant opaqueness used to determine which bowls are BCS bowls. The Fiesta Bowl is the youngest of the BCS bowls and owes much of its fame from the choice of the Penn St. Nittany Lions and Miami Hurricanes use of that bowl as a defacto national championship game for the 1986 season in the 1997 Sunkist Fiesta Bowl (also the first bowl to pimp out their name that year.) Both teams were independent at the time.

The financial success of this game, and the 1989 Fiesta Bowl between the #1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the #3 West Virginia Mountaineers, lead to the formation of the Bowl coalition and the inclusion of the Fiesta Bowl as a major component. This evolved into the BCS.

The Fiesta Bowl began life as a guarantee for WAC champions to have a bowl invite. Before 1987 they were considered a minor bowl, behind the Cotton Bowl who has a long and rich bowl history due to its historical tie in with the once great Southwestern Conference.

Wouldn't it be nice if a process were in place that clearly identified which bowls deserve to be called BCS bowls? Would you believe I have a plan for that?

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More photos » Alex Brandon - AP

about 1 month ago: President Barack Obama jogs to the podium in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Jan. 25, 2010, during a ceremony where he honored the 2008-2009 NBA basketball champions Los Angeles Lakers.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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Flashback to the days of campaign promises ... the Monday before elections ... President Barack Obama promised to throw his weight around in support of a playoff. This was reiterated on 60 minutes, less than one month after his historic win.

He has refused to go so far as inviting undefeated teams left out of BCS to receive White House championship honors, even when one received championships from NCAA recognized selectors (Utah 2008).

Commander in Chief Obama is now aiming his most powerful legal weapon, The Department of Justice, at the BCS. This is in responded to Senator Hatch's (R-UT) request to open an investigation into the BCS.

“The Department of Justice is reviewing your letter as well as other materials to determine whether an open an investigation into the legality of the current system under the antitrust laws,” said the letter to Hatch. In addition, the letter said that the Obama Administration is “exploring other options that might be available to address concerns with the college football post-season.” Included among the options the Administration is considering are proposals to encourage the NCAA to “take control of the college football post-season,” asking a governmental or non-governmental entity or commission to “study the benefits, costs, and feasibility of a playoff system,” asking the Federal Trade Commission to “examine the legality of the current system under consumer protection laws,” exploring whether other agencies may play a role in enacting reforms, and legislative efforts aimed at fixing the BCS system.

This should add pressure for the best possible result to happen. That would be for the BCS to fix itself.

This definitely raises the bar far beyond the anti-trust laws of last year's senate hearing. This is a good day for those opposed to the BCS.

E. DeGasero - AP

Is this what the NCAA plans to do for football?

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When radical ideas come from a witty and entertaining blog, dripping with satire, that is one thing. When radical ideas are formally presented by an expert at the annual NCAA convention that is something else altogether.

Smith College economy professor Andrew Zimbalist's plan consists of three areas of concern:

• Reducing coaches salaries
• Cut football scholarships
• Replace the BCS with an NCAA playoff

Currently, athletic expenditures are increasing at a rate four times those of the academic expenditures among NCAA members.  Budgets are being reduced, particularly in division II, by cutting the seasons of non revenue sports and reducing the size and duration of stay for travel parties. Zimbalist stated that these measures are not a permanent fix and present Title IX issues without addressing the core economic issues.

This message was reportedly well received by the university presidents, indicating an economically motivated shift in the political landscape for the BCS far more threatening than the growing congressional pressure looms on the horizon.

Some background on this presentation and a look at the details next...

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The American Football Coaches Association has reaffirmed their support of the BCS.

American Football Coaches Association executive director Grant Teaff presented the results of a survey of all 120 Division I-A coaches during the meeting. What was found was not surprising: a majority of coaches want to keep the system the way it is.

Teaff said 73 percent of the coaches want to keep the current BCS system the way it is. He also said that 96 of the 120 coaches voted to keep transparency in the final regular-season coaches poll. And 95.7 want to maintain the final coaches poll voting the BCS champion No. 1.

Now is that 95.7 coaches or 95.7%, which would be between 115 and 114 coaches? (Most likely 114 coaches with one not voting.)

The vote to keep transparency was important because the BCS was strongly opposed to a secret ballot and might have removed the coaches from their formula without transparency. Maintaining the ties with the BCS championship in the final ballot also maintains the iconic AFCA Waterford trophy's relationship with the BCS Championship Game.

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With last night's win the Alabama Crimson Tide has earned their 13th national championship, ended a five game streak of the favored team losing the BCS championship and watched the second Heisman winner follow up with a solid BCS championship game and earn a win.


The game was mostly decided early in the first quarter when Colt McCoy went out with a shoulder injury. The ensuing Field Goal and short kickoff feilded by the Texas Longhorns gave Texas an early lead and the ball in good field possition. Texas was unable to move the chains and took an early 6-0 lead. After trading a couple of punts Alabama would drive down the field and score the go ahead TD on the first play of the second quarter.

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