Trust buster

After Congress addressed steroids in baseball in 2004 and 2005, some said that government should address more important topics than sports.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) was never one of them.

The Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, of which Hatch is a member, will hold hearings this month to examine the NCAA’s Bowl Championship Series (BCS) for major college football.

The six-term senator recently wrote about the BCS’s problems in Sports Illustrated. Today, he tweeted about it:

On ESPN’s Mike and Mike in the Morning radio show this morning to discuss the anticompetitive nature of the BCS.

The BCS is a computer ratings system determines the champion of major college football and selects other teams to big time bowl games. Critics of the system allege that it favors schools from major football conferences at the expense of exceptional teams from smaller leagues, so that the NCAA can collect more revenue.

“The Sherman Anti Trust Act prohibits contracts, combinations or conspiracies designed to reduce competition,” Hatch wrote in his Sports Illustrated article. “I don’t think a more accurate description of what the BCS does exists.”

In 2008 Hatch’s own Utah Utes had an undefeated season, but were not picked to play in the national championship game.