Craig Thompson took his football playoff proposal to Capitol Hill on Friday, with lawmakers taking shots at a Bowl Championship Series system that one Texas representative said is “like communism.”
Thompson, commissioner of the Colorado Springs-based Mountain West Conference, reiterated at the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee hearing that the current BCS system is unfair to the five smaller conferences such as his.
Thompson is proposing an eight-team playoff with a separate committee to determine the participants. Utah, the Mountain West champion, was the nation’s only unbeaten team last season yet did not qualify for the national title game.
‘How is this fair?” asked Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., the subcommittee chairman. “How can we justify this system. . . . Are the big guys getting together and shutting out the little guys?”
Rep. Joe Barton of Texas has introduced legislation to keep the NCAA from calling the BCS title game a national championship until it starts a playoff system. Barton compared the current system to communism because, he said, “You can’t fix it.”
Thompson is hoping Congress can make headway on a system that receives major support from the six major conferences. John Swofford, commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference and current BCS coordinator, said at the hearing that the current system is fair.
“It represents the marketplace,” Swofford said.
Thompson presented his proposal at the BCS meetings in Pasadena, Calif., last month, and the conference commissioners will take it to their spring meetings. Thompson may not know how much support it will get until the BCS and the Conference Commissioners Association meet in Colorado Springs in June.
“The board oversight has said they would like some type of synopsis of all the positioning of the various conferences — some support, a lot of support, no support, total support — whatever the positions might be in those conferences,” Thompson said, “and (Friday) I heard Congressman Barton say that he would like some reaction from the BCS in the next 60 days.”
Thompson has said if his entire proposal isn’t accepted, he hopes certain elements are implemented. However, the current system appears set until ESPN’s BCS contract runs out after the 2013 season.
“After a couple days in Pasadena, in the meeting rooms or in the hallways, people said, ‘You know, there’s some value in the selection committee, the automatic qualifying standards. Yeah, the computers are confusing,’ ” Thompson said. “I think there are certain parts and not those two specifically. . . . It’s been out there a couple months, but it hasn’t really gotten to the dialogue level like it has started to now.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
