In January of 2010, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, one of the biggest and most powerful critics of the BcS, spoke on there being “an arrogance about the BCS that just drives me nuts” and that “if nothing else, the Justice Department ought to be looking at this.”
With the release of a letter from the DOJ to the NCAA Wednesday asking some very pointed questions regarding the lack of a playoff at the Div. 1-A level, the long-time congressman may very well get his wish.
Speaking on FOX Business by way of the Orlando Sentinel, Hatch applauded the DOJ’s apparent desire to take a deeper look into the BcS and determining whether the current system for determining a national champion violates antitrust laws. And, as expected, Hatch continued his bashing of the BcS, even getting in a shot to the system’s groin by alluding to the Fiesta Bowl fiasco.
“My understanding is they are going to go forward and this is the first step,” Hatch said of the letter sent from assistant attorney general Christine Varney to NCAA president Mark Emmert. “Look, 87% of the BCS money goes to the privileged conferences. That amounts to billions of dollars. Only about 12% goes to the non-privileged conferences. It is very unfair and violative of the anti-trust laws.
“You saw what happened out of the Fiesta Bowl. Some of these people treat the BCS as their own theifdom where they can rip all the money out of it that they want to and it’s billions of dollars.
“I think the Justice Department is totally responsible in going into this and looking at it, and I don’t see how they can’t conclude anything but that this is violative of the antitrust laws. We do need to go to a playoff system that really would work like all the other sports that we have, and frankly, by doing that, it would be more fair and more balanced. The unprivileged conferences would be treated more fairly and in the end I think we would have a better system.”
From your lips to the college football gods’ ears, Mr. Senator.
