No, it’s not an Onion headline. How the hell is it that people are enraged by stupid shit like this? If an MP here in Canada were to try a stunt like this, the media would bury the jackass. I’m not a fan of the BCS, but Congress investigating it is just asinine. What’s the point? What do they hope to accomplish? And how did the US reach the point where the federal government is looking into the way college football chooses it’s national champion?
With all the much more important things to worry about, I agree this is pretty damn stupid.
Okay, so this year we’ve had:
A Congressional investigation into steriods in baseball
A Congressional investigation into energy company profits
A Congressional investigation into the BCS
Seems to me that we’re missing the real issues here.
College football is a billion dollar business that directly affects the finances of large state institutions (State Universities). Bowl games will pay out 187 million this year to football programs with the majority going to the BCS bowls cite. For example multiple millions of dollars depend on whether or not my State University is selected for a BCS bowl or not. If Congress is going to be regulating industries I don’t see why college football should be any different.
:dubious: “Deeply flawed?” Physicians, heal thyselves.
As long as the American public is going to pay out huge sums of money to watch some jocks run around for an hour or so, the people who receive (and do not receive) greater or lesser portions of that money are going to take a much deeper interest in the way it is disbursed than one would think was an intelligent way to view some entertainment. (Have any Texas teams lost out in controversial decisions since 1998?)
Why, yes!
Texas vs. Oklahoma: Winner:
2004 Oklahoma 12-0
2003 Oklahoma 65-13
2002 Oklahoma 35-24
2001 Oklahoma 14-3
2000 Oklahoma 63-14
I’d like to ask “so what?” regarding the millions involved. But that’s not really productive. So, instead, I’m wondering:
Are there any comparable “industries” that are regulated? I’d not count professional sports (and I think the whole steroid investigation was balls-out stupid). I’m having trouble coming up with any…
The BCS is pretty lame, but even at it’s worst it’s not as bad as this publicity whoring and blatant abuse of the Interstate Commerce Clause. That the Rep. in question is from Texas and that UT is second in the BCS is, I’m sure, a coincidence.
Keep this up, Congress. Really. Keep being this dumb and you’ll force me to be a libertarian or worse.
There is no comparable industry to college football as far as I am aware. Its use of computers to determine rankings and the whole bowl situation is unique to college football. I don’t necessarily think its a good idea for Congress to stick its nose in the situation. I just take issue with the idea that idea that Congress looking into the BCS is merely investigating how the national champion in football is determined. Its looking into a structure in which almost two hundred million dollars is distributed to organizations that include many public universities.
Thank you. I’d like an investigation into what exactly this multi-million (billion, I’ll bet, if you count government largesse and clothing deals) sports industry has to do with higher education, aside from making a mockery of it? Is it really paying for academics? You would think, if that were the case, that you could get out of Syracuse University for less than $175,000. It seems that college athletics exist mainly to perpetuate themselves.
I am so glad that Congress is finally going to investigate the manner in which this fraud is carried out. We must make sure that all institutions have the same opportunity to grab a slice.
I just now Googled BCS, since I was thinking of using their algorithms to rank a football board game league I’m in. I now agree it’s lame, both due to the use of human polls and the secretness of the algorithm :mad:.
A Republican? :eek:
Sorry, but having Congress investigate it, isn’t going to acomplish a bloody thing.
All we’re going to end up with, at best, is some huge report on the matter that few people will bother to read, a lot of bitching and moaning about the whole thing, and then more investigations some years later when another scandal with the BCS rears it’s ugly head.
Gee, the Republican leadership is under indictment in both the House and Senate, the White House’s activities are being exposed for the colossal blunders they are, and Congress suddenly decides to investigate a popular sport. Geez, this couldn’t be a cynical attempt to DISTRACT the public from the real problems in Washington, could it? Naaaaah, our fine-if-indicted Republican leadership would NEEEVER do something like that …
Wow, this is pretty ridiculous.
First, Evil Captor, that’s asinine. First off Republican leadership is not under indictment at all in the Senate, and it’s “technically” it isn’t in the House either (DeLay had to vacate the position.)
The current leadership of both respective legislative houses breaks down like this:
Senate:
President Pro Tempore - Ted Stevens
Majority Leader - Bill Frist
Majority Whip - Mitch McConnell
Conference Chair - Rick Santorum
Conference Secretary - Kay Bailey Hutchinson
Policy Committee Chair - John Kyl
House:
Speaker - Dennis Hastert
Majority Leader - Roy Blunt (acting)
Majority Whip - Roy Blunt
Conference Chair - Deborah Pryce
Committee Chair - John Shadegg
Conference Secretary - John Doolittle
None of those people is under indictment. One Tom DeLay is under indictment, which is why he had to surrender his leadership office. As it is, indictment != guilt in the first place, or at least I was under the assumption we had the presumption of innocence in this country, IANAL so I may be wrong on that count.
Political scandal != to being under indictment. Thus your statement that House and Senate leadership is under indictment is patently false.
To get back to the logical issue at hand, this type of news is sports page news or at best buried somewhere in the 3rd/4th page of the news section. Politicians do have publicity people and also have some concept of how the media works, or they wouldn’t have been elected in the first place. If they were going to try and take some action, purely calculated to get embarassing information out of the news, then it would have to be something that would actually be a big enough newsmaker to bump the DeLay indictment aside. Basically you really have to be drinking the kool aid to believe this was a calculated attempt to overshadow charges of corruption that are currently levied against some members of the Republican party.
Anyways to the issue at hand, you either agree the House should regulate industry and commerce or you believe they shouldn’t.
If you believe they should, then there’s not really any ground to stand on when it comes to opposing this action. Just because you think sports is stupid, or think college sports shouldn’t exist, or think congress shouldn’t investigate sports, that doesn’t change the fact that sports (and college sports) is indeed part of commerce and industry in this country. And if our legislature is going to have a committee on Energy and Commerce, then it’d be highly disingenuous to call said legislature out for putting said committee to work, especially when it’s in an area that has been specifically covered by a subcommittee for some time now.
They should be investigating the ridiculousness of conference championship games.
70-3 with 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter.
Well, of course it is under their purview. That does not mean it requires investigating. Don’t like the way the BCS chooses its participants? Call Jim Rohm. There is no issue of public trust here because it doesn’t make a goddamn bit of difference who goes and who doesn’t. One athletic department gets a windfall or another one does. The only “students” who see any benefit are the ones who never graduate. It has nothing to do with higher education.
That’s ridiculous. This isn’t an either-or proposition. It’s perfectly logical to believe that Congress can regulate industry, but at the same time believe that investigating College football’s method of choosing a national champion is a complete waste of time.