OT: “We Want a Playoff Now” campaign launching
Looks like folks in Congress want a playoff instead of the current BCS arrangement.
The “We Want a Playoff Now” campaign was introduced Thursday on Capitol Hill. It includes the lobbying firm The Moffett Group, headed up by former Rep. Toby Moffett, D-Conn., and the communications firm, New Partners. Along with that effort, two congressmen are forming the Congressional Collegiate Sports Caucus. The congressmen, Texas Republican Joe Barton and Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen, are reintroducing Barton’s 2009 bill aimed at forcing college football to switch to a playoff system. The longshot bill would ban — as unfair and deceptive — the promotion of a postseason NCAA Division I football game as a national championship unless it’s the outcome of a playoff.
Here's the money quote hurr hurr hurr:
...decisions about college sports are best left to those in higher education, not politicians.
I imagine that's getting pretty loose with the truthiness, eh? I don't think anyone would argue that school administrators (i.e. "those in higher education") are making the decisions. No, that'd be the dudes in the yellow blazers.
December 15th, 2011 at 10:23 PM ^
EDIT: Nevermind... TOO MUCH POLITIKZ for everyone.
December 15th, 2011 at 10:28 PM ^
May I ask why the quote in your sig is one from...Craig James?
December 15th, 2011 at 10:41 PM ^
just a guess.
December 15th, 2011 at 11:42 PM ^
...it has something to do with dead hookers.
December 15th, 2011 at 10:26 PM ^
Congress has better things to do. Or perhaps not.
Either way I don't see much high-minded discussion coming out of this.
December 16th, 2011 at 12:42 PM ^
Any congressperson of any party that even spends 2 seconds working on a playoff system for football games when we have the REAL problems we have should be summarily disbarred, tarred and feathered and shipped out of town in the trunk of a car.
December 15th, 2011 at 10:27 PM ^
Craig James now has his platform.
December 15th, 2011 at 10:48 PM ^
A hooker killing playoff amount congressmen? I'm not sure that will fly.
December 15th, 2011 at 10:50 PM ^
Craig James' New Agenda
1) Legalize hookers
2) Legalize killing of said hookers
3) NCAA Playoff system
December 15th, 2011 at 11:37 PM ^
I googled "Craig James SMU," without the quotes, and an article called "The Truth About Craig James and those Hookers" was in the number four position. Here's the link:
I would imagine that if more people were curious about the rumor that Craig James killed five hookers while at SMU, it could derail his bid for office.
December 15th, 2011 at 10:39 PM ^
to divert attention from all the other problems facing America!
/conspiracytheories
December 15th, 2011 at 10:42 PM ^
just replace "other problems facing America!" with "things Congress is doing"
/tootrueforthisblog
December 15th, 2011 at 10:40 PM ^
an Oompa Loompa now!" shrieked the spoiled child...
December 15th, 2011 at 10:50 PM ^
WTF.
Don't those assholes have real work to do?
Like, say, fixing our shitty economy?
(Lest I be accused of politicking, I'm calling them all assholes.... Rs and Ds.)
December 15th, 2011 at 11:22 PM ^
With the hundreds of millions of dollars bowl game middle men and hangers on are siphoning away from institutions there actually is some merit to ending the current system.
December 15th, 2011 at 11:44 PM ^
I logged in just to +1 you. A lot of people fail to see the economic side of CFB when casting this notion that congress has better things to do. Most of these institutions are public, and their financials are impacted by athletics. Bowls raise hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Many* schools PAY money to attend. This does not correlate. Hundreds of millions of dollars ain't small potatoes.
People apparently don't watch enough C-SPAN to realize that congress is not always fighting for civil liberties and the American way. There are bigger wastes of time than the NCAA, some of which they tackle as well.
As for the pros, you can argue that they are not tied as closely to the feds. However, the NFL is still bigger than many identities that congress deals with, even if only looking at them from an economic standpoint and excluding the public exposure. Sports is sports, which is why many think it a silly waste of time. Most disregard the fact that sports make a LOT of money, which dictates the attention from congress.
Even if you go the steroids route... congress is not wasting money to fry a couple of millionaires over butt pokes. They are spending that money to make a statement: to kids, to other athletes, and to the populace in general.
Sports are not life and death, they are recreation. This is why many see congress as meddling with some pointless obsession. This is a big misconception that is shared by many people, incorrect as it may be.
*Free Press tactics at their finest. I'm lazy, so care to wager on what defines many?
December 16th, 2011 at 1:00 PM ^
So Congress wastes some time on smaller issues, not just the American Way and Civil liberties, so it's ok to spend time on Football, which is in fact, a recreational acitivity? Why, because it makes lots of money? Why does money "dictate" the attention of Congress? Your argument is nonsense--following it means that Congress should be paying attention to every activity that generates more than a little money.
Let's put this in perspective: who exactly is harmed here? The schools you say "pay" to participate? They are DYING to participate. Schools make money from the system that exists right now. Other sports get paid for by football that wouldn't exist without it. So Congress should get involved with establishing a playoff system because? Because they disagree with how schools are spending their money? Because Congress thinks it knows better how schools should establish their football champion?
I mean, come on man....
December 16th, 2011 at 12:46 PM ^
Big schools mare making WAY more fro the system than is "siphoned" away. Do you really think if they could make even more from a playoff that they wouldn't support it? They are HAPPY with the money they are making now--that's why the President's don't care about a playoff.
December 15th, 2011 at 10:51 PM ^
the old system of locked-in matchups with conference tie-ins for all the major bowls.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a system which leaves fans arguing, after the end of the bowl season, about which team was "best", including those which never had a chance to meet face-to-face.
Gol durned whipper-snappers claiming we need a playoff system that results in an undisputed "national champion" in football have no sense of history, no sense of persepective, no sense of what makes college football the best sport in the US for fans.
Back before the PTB ****ed up everthing by initiating the BCS, there were fans of a dozen or so teams happy their team won their conference, fans of another two dozen happy they won thier bowl game, and fans of about 10 happy they won a bowl of reasonable prestige, and 5 who won a major bowl (Rose, Cotton, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta). In more years than not, at least two teams, and sometimes three or even four, had a reasonably plausible argument that theirs was the best team in the country with a claim to the mythical national championship. It is not a bad thing, but a good thing, that Michigan and Nebraska fans can argue into perpetuity who had the best team in 1997! (Michigan, obviously)
Why anybody wanted to **** with that remains a mystery to me, and why anybody, let alone Congress, would think it a good ideal to **** that up even more boggles the mind. As great as the NCAA basketball tournament is, it doesn't produce a "national champion"; it has a tournament winner. The winner of the tournament has not been the best team in basketeball in more years than not. Football is even less amenable to such a process.
December 15th, 2011 at 11:10 PM ^
Best post ever.
December 15th, 2011 at 11:20 PM ^
December 16th, 2011 at 9:05 AM ^
I thought I ws the only one.
December 15th, 2011 at 10:54 PM ^
Anybody in Congress that's debating sports on Capital Hill can go f*** themselves.
December 15th, 2011 at 10:56 PM ^
Exactly. Just like MGoBlog has a no politics rule, Congress should have a no sports rule.
December 15th, 2011 at 11:04 PM ^
Let's leave Mike and Mike in the morning to Mike and Mike in the morning. Talk education.
December 16th, 2011 at 12:22 AM ^
The way Congress is working lately, they might also consider a no politics rule.
December 15th, 2011 at 10:57 PM ^
Since we can now put American citizens in prison indefinitely without trial for suspected terrorism; I suggest arresting all the Bowl People for terrorizing college football and don't let them out until we have a playoff system.
December 15th, 2011 at 10:59 PM ^
Or we could start a Facebook group!
December 15th, 2011 at 11:20 PM ^
I'm not sure this will amount to anything but depending on who wins the BCS NCG and how the AP votes are tallied if there's another split NC then I can see this getting some attention.
December 15th, 2011 at 11:25 PM ^
Yes...Congress is exactly the group I want working on a playoff....Yes Sir....
December 15th, 2011 at 11:30 PM ^
Everybody keeps missing the point. A playoff equals money. By conservative estimates 3 to 4 times more then the current system on an annual basis. (Also, way way more than the old bowl system everyone keeps saying we should go back too.) These politicians represent taxpayers who foot the bill for red ink bleeding athletic departments at state schools all over the country. This is every bit the business of the politicians.
The question they are asking on behalf of their states are: Why are we allowing the perpetuation of a system that unfairly favors the few at the expense of everyone else, when there is an obvious better system that would favor all?
Contractural monopolies built on greed that harm large swaths of the people they represent, are what these guys are there to guard against.
December 16th, 2011 at 12:02 AM ^
This alumnus just wants to Beat Ohio and go to the Rose Bowl. I don't care about any MNC (that's mostly for kids who didn't go to a school with a storied football program, like say, Central Michigan).
December 16th, 2011 at 1:32 AM ^
Congress needs to tread water and make headlines every now and then too. I'd like to think that government intervention based on the waste of taxpayer dollars could make a difference but the political will is just not there. I don't see this getting anywhere.
December 16th, 2011 at 7:40 AM ^
and say what you mean...Something that congress will never do..
December 16th, 2011 at 9:38 AM ^
The NCAA (which is made up of all of the schools) opts into the BCS Bowl system and they negotiated "guaranteed" ticket sales, and hotel packages.
While, I think the BCS is a completely useless ripoff, the NCAA wasn't and isn't forced into the system, they want it.
December 16th, 2011 at 9:59 AM ^
Yeah, that's what we need.. A playoff sys run by the politicians.
I don't get the big deal about the playoffs anyway. I don't even remember who played in the championship game last year. So some people like to brag about their team beating your team. so what. Keep the bowls and let them argue.
December 16th, 2011 at 11:29 AM ^
Legalize!