Thursday, December 10, 2009

Football, Education & Money

For some reason I'm always amazed by the idiocy of our politicians. This time, Texas Congressman Joe Barton (Republican) has put up a bill that, if passed, would require the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) to create a playoff system if they want to crown a national college football champion.

Yes, it is true that most people do want a college playoff system. It is true that the current BCS system sometimes creates rancorous debates among fans of college's left over undefeated teams. But what is alsow true, is that this is the EXACT type of legislation banned by our Constitution.

First, there is nothing in our Constitution that allows the Federal Gov't to regulate the crowning of a college (or even professional) sport.

Second, the Constitution is specifically designed to protect the rights of minority's, regardless how popular a college playoff system would become (if the BCS wants to forgo a lucrative playoff system, we don't have the right to tell them what to do).

What about the unintended consequences of such legislation. Are four teams enough for a playoff system? According to NCAA basketball, they think 64 teams are the magic number. When do these playoff start and end? Don't colleges have the right to say we don't want another four weeks added to the football season? After all, most of these players are only getting half an education as is, why shorten it further.

Sadly, such schools such as Stanford, may choose to drop out of Division I-A football if it requires the students to miss more weeks of school, to prepare for football games with no career prospects in their futures.

Last - even if you ignore the Constitution (which most Americans, politicians and courts already do), aren't we asking these students to make millions of dollars for advertisers, bowl promoters, Las Vegas, the broadcast networks and their schools, for the sum of ZERO pay! Classic government, one regulation to promote a playoff system, will probably run counter to another regulation limiting forced child labor.

3 comments:

  1. You kmow I don't pay attention to this stuff, so it is possible that you just made up this whole story. :)
    If not made up, what the hell is wrong with these people! Didn't they take civics in school?
    Ron Paul needs to take this "Republican" to the woodshed.

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  2. Wouldn't it be nice if I DID make up this story? Sadly, it is true.
    http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/DN-bcs_10met.ART.Central.Edition1.4ba00bc.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here's a smaller link:
    http://tinyurl.com/ye73hvp

    ReplyDelete