Via Hit & Run comes this latest example of Congressional stupidity and overreaching:
HOUSTON (AP) — Calling the Bowl Championship Series “deeply flawed,” the chairman of a congressional committee has called a hearing on the controversial system used to determine college football’s national champion.
A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, charged with regulating America’s sports industry, announced Friday it will conduct a hearing on the BCS next week, after this season’s bowl matchups are determined.
Yep, that’s right. With all the problems facing America, Congress, having decided earlier this year that the imploding Social Security system is not really a problem, is going to stick its nose into the question of whether USC and Texas really are the two best teams in the country.
Why, you ask, is Congress doing this ? What authority do they even have to investigate college sports ? Silly question:
“College football is not just an exhilarating sport, but a billion-dollar business that Congress cannot ignore,” said committee Chairman Joe Barton, a Texas Republican. Barton’s panel is separate from the House Government Reform panel that tackled steroids in baseball.
(….)
“Too often college football ends in sniping and controversy, rather than winners and losers,” Barton said. “The current system of determining who’s No. 1 appears deeply flawed.”
See ? Congresses authority to get involved here emanates directly from its authority to police sports trivia contests and bar fights throughout the nation.
I suppose there is one good thing about this. If Congress is wasting its time with hearings like this, it will have less time to do things that really harm us.
