This post, by guest blogger LaRue Robinson, offers a few thoughts in reply to a Washington Times editorial published earlier this month. 

The recession has devastated many in our country.  Foreclosures are at record numbers, unemployment is at one of its highest levels since the Great Depression, and families all across the nation have been forced to tighten their wallets in unprecedented ways.  And what helps people make it through these hard times?  Sports.

Sports are part of America’s societal bedrock.  Sports are where people turn to take their mind off of the stresses of the day.  Sports help bring us all closer to each other, especially in very difficult times such as the present.  Simply put, sports are important. 

Now, merely because sports are important doesn’t mean that the federal government should meddle in every little detail of sports.  If the federal government’s involvement rose to the level of infringing players’ individual freedoms, for example, such an effort would not be worthy of support.  And surely, there are other more important legislative goals for the government than creating a college football playoff.  But, if our federal government is only capable of tackling one issue at a time, we might as well pass the leading superpower baton over to China already because our reign as the exemplary nation will quickly come to an end.

Do not let the fact that the sport is played by teenagers fool you into thinking that College Football is not a major institution.  College football is a billion dollar enterprise.  The sport funds not only entire athletic departments at some universities, but it also funds important academic projects as well.  Due to the immense popularity of College Football, football success leads to increased national publicity and recognition, stronger alumni networks and higher numbers of applications.  These benefits are currently limited to only a few teams and conferences because college football’s champion isn’t exist determined on the field, unlke every other sport. If we truly want America to be a meritocratic society we can’t turn our backs to an unjust and potentially illegal system in a billion-dollar American industry.

Congressman Joe Barton's two-page anti-BCS bill is hardly a government takeover.  It leaves sufficient room for college football executives to fashion a playoff that fits within those parameters.  A sixteen team playoff has only been one of a number of suggestions, not a mandate.  If Congress were to choose more specific language of how a football playoff should be designed then that would be more of an unsettling intrusion by the government.  The most important word within the proposed legislation is not “fair” or “equitable,” it is “playoff.”

We must also remember that government action in college football is not unprecedented.  President Theodore Roosevelt convened representatives of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton in 1905 to address the brutality of the sport and to address foul play.  Once new rules were put in place the sport flourished into what we all enjoy today.  When college football steps beyond certain boundaries, the government can and should play a role.

While it is true that people in America can solve problems through hard work, creativity and a system that rewards private initiative, sometimes a small minority can be led astray by selfish interests at the public’s expense.  As an institution comprised of many tax-exempt institutions, the BCS has a responsibility to run itself in the public’s interest. It’s time for a little oversight to ensure that happens.