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February 13, 2012
Binyamin Rose: Back to the Bunker: How a life-risking act by a Christian family during the Holocaust saved a family and built a thriving community a world away
Menachem Wecker: Business Schools Teach Real Estate Despite Troubled Housing Market
February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
February 9, 2012
Laura McMullen: 10 Least Expensive Public Schools for Out-of-State Students
Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
Dec. 24, 2009
/ 7 Teves 5770
A law to mandate college football playoffs?
By
Michael Smerconish
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"We can walk and chew gum at the same time," U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, assured me during a phone conversation last week. Others might disagree — especially when they hear what question prompted his remark:
Should Congress be involved in revising college football's postseason?
Yes is the short answer.
There appears little disagreement among the public as to whether there should be playoffs. A 2007 Gallup survey found that 85 percent of college football fans favor changing the current system. Everyone from President Obama to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has said he'd prefer a playoff. A more active debate surrounds whether a House subcommittee should recently have approved legislation encouraging the NCAA to move in that direction.
Right now, a combination of two so-called human polls and a series of computer rankings (which take into account everything from who wins to where the game was played to a team's strength of schedule) determine which teams play in college football's national championship game. And every year at this time, the legions of reporters, observers and fans wishing to move to a single-elimination playoff — like the NFL, for example — take their shots at the Bowl Championship Series system.
The BCS thinks Congress has better things to do.
Citing his own consensus — the 120 major universities that believe the current system is the best postseason scenario for college football — BCS executive director Bill Hancock said to me: "I feel that with all the serious matters facing our country, surely Congress has more important issues than spending taxpayers' money to dictate how college football is played."
He's right, obviously. But nobody is saying that passing cap-and-trade and prodding college football are mutually exclusive. Congress would be wrong to litigate the BCS like they do cap-and-trade.
Green said as much during our conversation last week. He's a member of the subcommittee on commerce, trade, and consumer protection, the body that recently approved the College Football Playoff Act of 2009. The bill would bar college football from promoting an event known as a "national championship" game unless it is the end result of a single-elimination playoff system.
"Congress' job is not only to pass legislation, but shine light on issues that people are concerned about," Green told me. "And the reason our committee in Congress has any oversight at all over professional baseball, football, or the BCS is they enjoy an antitrust exemption."
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, made a similar point in an e-mail exchange last week. While college football's postseason isn't "the most important issue," he acknowledged, it is "a multibillion-dollar-a-year operation and it is interstate commerce."
"If Exxon Mobil and ChevronTexaco did in the oil industry what the BCS has done in college football," Barton told me, "they would be prosecuted for violating antitrust laws."
Hence the hearings and subcommittee action on the legislation — the kind of fleeting congressional intervention that has worked in the past. Indeed, Congress' treatment of baseball's steroids scandal over the last five years produced some of Major League Baseball's most damaging episodes.
Mark McGwire refusing to "talk about the past." Rafael Palmeiro wagging his finger as he denied taking steroids. Sammy Sosa sitting sheepishly as his attorney read a prepared statement. Those images forced baseball into adopting a strict ban on performance-enhancing drugs where they had previously been reluctant to look under the tarp that apparently had long-hidden baseball's steroids culture.
The examples go beyond sports. In 1994, executives from seven of the country's largest tobacco companies testified before a House subcommittee in what George Washington University political scientist Sarah Binder called the "coup de grace" in a slow-burning political and cultural movement against smoking. After the executives said under oath that they didn't believe cigarettes to be addictive, public sentiment turned sharply against them.
"The hearings basically forced executives from the big tobacco companies to talk under oath before Congress and to release loads of internal documents from the tobacco industry," Binder told me in an e-mail. "(Congressman Henry) Waxman was able to use Congress' investigatory powers to blow the lid on tobacco-company behavior — all without actually legislating at the time."
Congress is right to similarly spend a little time nudging college football toward a playoff. No need to call the Congressional Budget Office for a cost estimate. Hold a hearing or two, draft legislation, and hope that motivates the BCS to alter its postseason format.
Critics will no doubt view such efforts as another example of the federal government's growing influence where it ought not to be. Some may chastise a Congress that hasn't passed health reform for throwing a Hail Mary.
But college football and the BCS is a rarity in an otherwise starkly red/blue, liberal/conservative political time: a billion-dollar-a-year operation whose overhaul is supported by a bipartisan cadre of legislators and Americans from all walks of life (and athletic conferences).
Like an offense starting on its own goal line, there's much to be gained from moving the ball forward.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.
Previously:
12/17/09 Cheney's abuse of freedom of speech
11/26/09 The true cost of freedom from anxiety
10/27/09 If GOP wants to win in 2012, it must reshape its primary process
10/08/09 It's time to get smarter on extended school day
09/03/09 What a summer of eulogizing flawed public figures reveals about society
08/12/09 It's time for cyclists and motorists to reconcile
08/05/09 Faces have changed, but vitriol remains
06/25/09 Fair comment or foul? Warm up the Muzzle Meter
06/08/09 Believability is key in crime-hoax villains
05/14/09 Did Hollywood inspire the meltdown men?
04/20/09 Let's give killers their due: Anonymity
03/12/09 Uninsured who can't afford medical care lose a lot more
02/06/09 My debate with Musharraf on hunt for bin Laden
01/29/09 Torture must remain an option
01/15/09 Making a case for suing Madoff
12/22/08 A difficult but rational chat about plans
12/17/08 Facebook epidemic: More than 120 million have joined, many too old for this nonsense
12/01/08 The high price of downsizing the news biz
11/14/08 Prescience on greed, arrogance of a system
09/29/08 Closer look at party lines
08/26/08 Obama's pick creates GOP opportunity
08/21/08 Fishing with the Angry Everyman
07/31/08 The perils of e-mail: Ponder, then click
05/22/08 Two very different sides of the Internet
02/12/08 Sublimely ridiculous suits
11/28/08 Cell phones cut out secondary circle of kinship
09/26/07 What do we owe those who have died in Iraq?
08/30/07 A Navy SEAL's gut-wrenching tale of survival
07/30/07 First it was a faux pas, now it's a new word
© 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
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