Last year, Playoff PAC offered a glimpse at the Bowl Championship Series’ lobbying operation. As noted previously, federal law requires certain organizations to disclose publicly how much they pay their congressional lobbyists. The 2009 federal lobbying reports offer key insight on the current state of college football reform in Congress.[1]
The BCS retains Watts Partners as its principal lobbyists. Watts Partners is the lobbying firm of J.C. Watts, a former four-term congressman and star Oklahoma Sooner quarterback. The BCS paid Watts Partners a handsome $730,000 sum over the past few years, with $90,000 paid out last year alone. For added firepower, the BCS has now tapped a second team of lobbyists, Hogan & Hartson, with a retainer that paid $320,000 in 2009 alone.
BCS-allied groups are also heavy spenders on Capitol Hill. The Football Bowl Association paid over $30,000 to high-powered Washington sports lobbyist Phillip Kochberg. The BCS also enlisted the NCAA, the Atlantic Coast Conference, Arizona State University, University of Arizona, The Ohio State University, Penn State University, Purdue University, Rutgers, and the University of Michigan to kill pending pro-playoff legislation before Congress in 2009.
Perhaps the BCS’s oddest lobbying partner was Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., which broadcasted BCS bowl games through its FOX network. News Corp. and its subsidiaries spent $5.3 million on lobbying in 2009, some of which was dedicated to stopping the momentum of Congressman Joe Barton’s (R-TX) anti-BCS bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. To Playoff PAC’s knowledge, FOX and its affiliated networks never disclosed News Corp.’s lobbying partnership with the BCS during broadcasts that purported to offer a neutral view of the “BCS v. Playoff” debate.
As we have said before, you may call us cynics, but the BCS’s enormous lobbying resources perhaps show why college football reform has yet to gain significant traction in Congress, despite its wide-spread popularity. It also shows the need for Playoff PAC and other groups to counter BCS efforts by supporting candidates who actively favor reform.