Sports Talk
BCS bowls over sports fans
by Rawly Bransom, Sports Editor

   In 1998 it was supposed to be the golden answer to all past problems.
   It was supposed to be the savior of almost 90 years of tradition.
   It was supposed to bring back fairness to an unfair system.
   It was called the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), and it has followed through with none of its promises.
   With the recent trend of mass conference shifting that is taking place across the country, the BCS has recently come under fire from senators who believe that the college football ranking systems are unfair and elitist.
   Of course, it is unfair.
   It is a system based on mathematical principles in a contest based on human skill and a little luck.
   Is it fair that undefeated TCU has barely been able to crack the top 10 while Texas at 9-2 is expected to jump a few spots above them? No, of course it isn’t.
   The question I wonder is not if the BCS is unfair, but why are U.S. senators wasting their, and even more importantly our, time threatening the BCS.
   Is our economy in such great state that trivial matters seem all the more important?
   Is crime down to lows that would allow the Justice Department extra time to see whether BCS is breaking anti-trust laws as an illegal monopoly?
   This attack is the most ludicrous thing I have seen come out of Washington in years.
   As a college football fan, I appreciate any help in straightening out the BCS and college football in general.
   Yet, the importance of college football is minimal compared to other issues our senators should address.
   What it comes down to, as it always does, is money.
   The senators raising the biggest yells are alumni from schools outside the BCS conferences.
   Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah is one of the biggest supporters of sending the issue to the Justice Department for investigation.
   Hatch is also a graduate of BYU, a member of the Mountain West Conference, which is not a BCS conference.
   As always, the mighty dollar rules all things, whether for the major conferences that would like to keep their money or senators who have ties to the other schools.
  Whoever said sports were fair?