Still going ga-ga over Utah’s upset win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, the state’s Attorney General Mark Shurtleff tells the Dessert Morning News’ Ben Winslow, “this game proves that it’s an unfair system.” Presumably, the system would be as unjust had the Crimson Tide been victorious Friday night.
Fuming over Utha’s apparent denial of a national championship after an undefeated season, Shurtleff is considering launching an investigation into college football’s Bowl Championship Series. Shurtleff plans to meet with some of his lawyers and investigators next week to consider building an antitrust case against the BCS.
“A team like Utah will never be given a chance” the attorney general said on Monday.
To make an antitrust case, Shurtleff has to argue a conspiracy that, in effect, creates a monopoly. In the BCS system, he suggested that with thousands of athletes and millions of dollars at stake, the BCS schools get more money, better stadiums and better recruits. Add to it the ranking and voting system for which teams get into a BCS bowl game, it removes schools like Utah.
“How do you substitute greed and money for heart and guts?” Shurtleff said.
“Regardless of what happens in the Florida-Oklahoma game, the outcome will not change the fact that there is only one undefeated team in Division I college football: the University of Utah,” Senator Orin Hatch said. “For the second time in four years, the BCS-busting Utes have gone undefeated and yet uninvited to play for a national championship. That needs to change because the system is broken. The BCS is fatally flawed and, until it is fixed, will continue to produce a flawed college football champion.”
A Web site, bcswatchdog.com, has created a legal fund to generate money to sue the BCS under federal antitrust laws. With a $3 million goal, approximately 184 people have contributed a little more than $8,400.
As Steven Wright observed, “isn’t it odd that only one company makes Monopoly?”