• Posted on Wednesday, December 3, 2008
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Commentary: BCS won't get fixed by Congress

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This editorial appeared in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

So, you think while President-elect Obama was cooling his heels for the news conference announcing his new foreign-policy team a couple of days ago, he was Monday-morning-quarterbacking Oklahoma's BCS bump over Texas?

Don’t bet on it, cubicle dweller.

Just because Barack Obama the sports nut twice has suggested in interviews that college football's ultimate chest-thumping rights should be decided by a playoff instead of polls and a computer doesn't mean it's a slam-dunk.

Remember what happened when Harry Truman big-footed and tried to take over the steel mills? Not so fast, said the Supreme Court. There's this little obstacle called the Constitution that says Congress regulates interstate commerce.

And what is college football if not one sprawling, lucrative, commerce-generating machine?

And that, mournful UT fans, could be the biggest reason why even a President Obama will be about as successful as Longhorn coach Mack Brown in bringing sense to the nonsense that the BCS has wrought in football's major division.

That plus the fact that Obama has righting the economy, taming the health care system, focusing on two wars and other monumental tasks higher on his to-do list.

Consider that ESPN just bought rights to broadcast the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls between January 2011 and January 2014, plus the BCS Championship Game in 2011-2013, for about $125 million, according to espn.com

To read the complete editorial, visit The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

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