The Fairness Bowl
House Bill: Institute College Football Playoff System
ARLINGTON, Texas — Sports writer Dave Zirin probably said it best about the Bowl Championship Series.
“Nothing brings the nation together like hatred of the BCS,” he wrote in his recent column “Bench the BCS.”
Indeed, look at the co-sponsors of the House bill — the College Football Playoff Act of 2009 — that would foster a playoff system to determine the supreme college football team in America.
It’s a Texas conservative Republican and a former Black Panther turned Chicago Democrat.
But both Reps. Joe Barton and Bobby Rush have vastly different takes on the BCS.
Rush equates the BCS to, well, let’s put it this way: during a House Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection subcommittee hearing last year, Rush called the “Atlantic Coast Conference” the “Athletic Coast Conference.”
In his defense, this is the same congressman who brushed off critics that would prefer Congress tackle other important issues like the Afghan war instead by saying, “We can walk and chew gum at the same time.”
While it’s not clear how Rush himself can make political hay out of this issue, it is clear that the BCS is an ATM machine for the jet set.
Barton, the highest ranking member of the subcommittee, refers to the BCS as a “cartel.”
And this is the same congressman whose district includes the new billion-dollar Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
According to PlayOff PAC, $492.5 million in bowl money was given to the six conferences that have automatic bowl bids — the Southeastern, the Pac 10, the Big 10, the Big 12, the Atlantic Coast, and the Big East.
Moreover, the pie is not evenly distributed either. Zirin noted, “A small-conference team such as unbeaten Boise State will see less money this bowl season than the 1-11 Pac-10 doormat Washington State.”
The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics reported last October that the 25 top football schools averaged surpluses of $3.9 million in 2008. The other 94 schools in the top division averaged $9.9 million deficits each.
The pay for BCS coaches and non-BCS coaches is also unequal, the commission found. In fact, head football coaches at state schools are most likely the highest-paid public employees.
Zirin noted, “Mack Brown of Texas, who just received a $2-million-a-year raise, for an annual salary of $5 million, until the end of his contract in 2016.”
And if the football team tanks, chances are the university’s financial sovereignty will too.
Of course, the members of these conferences are throwing money at Congress to see that this rigged, lopsided system stay intact.
The Center for Responsive Politics noted that the BCS has given $70,000 to K Street lobbyists this year. It’s head Washington lobbyist is J.C. Watts, a former congressman and former University of Oklahoma football star. It’s public relations operative is former President George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer.
According to Politico.com, other notable BCS system backers on Capital Hill include The University of Michigan ($415,000), Purdue University ($515,000), the National Collegiate Athletic Association ($120,000), the Football Bowl Association ($10,000), and the Atlantic Coast Conference ($250,000).
Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch has also spent $3,885,000 this past year in lobbying against the Barton/Rush bill on the tip that his FoxSports Network broadcasts BCS games. The current BCS television contracts expire in 2014 at which time the bowl system will be up for review.
Aside from automatic bid for the big, rich universities in the system, the rankings of those football programs is also suspect because the selection is based on formulas processed by computer systems. While coaches have the ability to rank teams in weekly BSC polls, the jobs of coaches with winning records are still on the line.
“Most coaches who lose half their games would also lose their jobs. Yet that’s what we settle for in determining a champion today.” explained Rep. Barton in a press statement last month.
Barton said he filed this bill, though, after hoping that by exposing BCS’s flaws in 2005, the powers-that-be would fix the way the system determines a clear champion, which is what he favors in the end because otherwise the public is being sold a lie.
“Consumers, whether the millions who watch the game on TV or the lucky few who pay for a ticket to the computer-designated ‘championship’ game, are being deceived,” he said. “The BCS championship game is not a championship game under any sensible interpretation of the manner in which sports champions are determined.”
However, the Playoff Act itself doesn’t call for such a radical change as scraping automatic bids for fhe big, rich state schools nor does it mandate a prefabricated playoff system.
The legislation … rather only [states that] all Division I, Football Bowl Subdivision, teams should be initially eligible at the start of every season. The existing bowl structure could easily be incorporated into or as the basis for such a playoff system.”
Radicals like Zirin, on the other hand, would prefer Congress make higher education more financially sound relative to a state university’s football program.
For example, student fees have tripled and academic programs slashed in the ‘00s at UC Berkeley whose campus has invested $430 million into renovating its football stadium.
At least, “[the Barton/Rush bill] holds the potential to expose the way that the Bowl Championship Series facilitates a system willing to sacrifice education at the altar of athletics,” Zirin concluded.
The legislation has found support in both President Barack Obama and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), both opponents of the BCS system.
However, House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman indicated the bill wouldn’t go before a full committee vote last December due to priority constraints.
“Oftentimes we don’t need legislation to accomplish our goals,” Waxman told the Hll.
According to Fox 12 Idaho, this spirit rings true for Barton, too.
“All they have to do is drop the word ‘Championship’ and call it the ‘Big-Time College Football Series,’ or the ‘Dollar Maximization Series,’” Fox 12 said. “It’s a little tongue in cheek, but you get the idea.”
Politics 2010: Tired Of The Same Old, Same Old?
November elections and reelections are less than one year away. The incumbents and candidates are squaring off, starting to play political hardball. History repeats itself and no one seems to learn any lessons from it.
November elections and reelections are less than one year away. The incumbents and candidates are squaring off, starting to play political hardball. History repeats itself and no one seems to learn any lessons from it.
The economy still is a mess at the national and state levels, but there is no shortage of “Elmer Gantry” types promising rain if your land is parched, money if your wallet is filled with cob webs and a much better life if you need one. Heck, most of us do need a better life.
The same old, same old is that we are being offered empty promises.
I am glad to see the “juices” flowing around the nation, even though a lot of it is misplaced anger and arrogance. Many people are getting more agitated and involved. Many want that better life, but few know how to get there. Many are unhappy with our legislators, but there are no clear answers on how to reform our Congress. Also, there are few solutions to cleaning house on the state and local levels.
An ancient Latin saying exclaims: “Belua multorum es capitum” – The people are a many-headed beast and nowhere is it observed better than in the political arena and especially during election time. The same incumbents get reelected every year even if they are doing a lousy job. It is an enigma worth viewing and one that needs a solution.
Those who run consistently are wealthy and have special interests. Being wealthy with special interests is one thing, using that wealth and power continuously against the best interests and majority of people is the problem and that’s exactly what many career politicians do.
We all see this at the national, state and local levels.
I am a Republican; however, I have always distrusted and disliked this sort of political maneuvering. In particular, I dislike a person professing to belong to one party when in reality, they have a different focus and action plan. It occurs too frequently with Democrats AND Republicans. On the national level, it is like Senator Joe Lieberman, another parasite out for his own good. Much as an unethical used car salesman, he will say and promise one thing, yet will change his story depending on who is listening.
In Texas at the state level, Representative Patrick Rose and at the local level Hays County Commissioner Jeff Barton act with the same longtime practice of deception. They profess to be Democrats and run under that party umbrella, but their voting history and actions show they are NOT Democrats. Historically their actions and voting are as Texas Republicans. However, year after year they get reelected.
The same old, same old is that this is occurring throughout the nation at all levels of government. The “many-headed beast” still reelects the deadwood incumbents.
It is the deception by these people and how they do so little for the community good that will have me voting for their opponents. I will vote for the candidates opposing Governor Rick Perry, Patrick Rose, Jeff Barton and others like them.
They are like sharks in a feeding frenzy. They are natural in their habitat, but you don’t want to be in their vicinity when they are feeding and doing what comes naturally to them.
They continue to do what they do because we permit it.
I also heard that former Representative Rick Green is running for some office again. Here’s the guy who got so angry and frustrated and then physically attacked Patrick Rose. The guy should be in jail, but he’s out running for political power again.
“Birds of a feather flock together.” Get ready for the same old, same old.
Peter Stern, a former director of information services, university professor and public school administrator, is a disabled Vietnam veteran who lives in Driftwood., Texas.
Communities Ask Corporations For ‘Free Money’ Back
In another sign that the U.S. economy is still in the tank, the Associated Press reported that communities across the country want corporations to give back their “free money.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In another sign that the U.S. economy is still in the tank, the Associated Press reported that communities across the country want corporations to give back their “free money.”
This “free money” came in the form of tax breaks on the condition of bringing jobs into their areas.
But in places like DeKalb, Ill., Target Corp. has not lived up to its promise of creating 500 jobs; the company created only 434 last year.
So the community — the city, county, and school district — has increased taxes on Target to $600,000, half of which is already headed to the school district.
A spokesperson for Target said that it was “disappointed” by the tax bill, according to the AP, but could live with the decision.
The city of DeKalb itself has a shortfall of $2 million in revenue.
The political will is such for enforcing these “clawback” provisions also because of the public’s distaste for taxpayer money headed to Wall Street giants such as Goldman Sachs.
Clawbacks have increase in Texas to nine in 2008 from seven across the previous three years with regard to money given from the Texas Enterprise Fund.
In the U.S. tax breaks are given to corporations upwards to $60 billion a year, according to Good Jobs First.
Chafee Again Announces Candidacy For Rhode Island Governor
Former Sen. Lincoln Chafee announced for the second time that he would run for governor of Rhode Island.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Former Sen. Lincoln Chafee announced for the second time that he would run for governor of Rhode Island.
This first announcement for candidacy came on “The Rachel Maddow Show” in April 2009.
The former Republican, however, withdrew his statement the next day, explaining that he was unprepared to announce though he had loaned money to his own campaign.
Chafee, 56, quit the Republican Party after losing his U.S. Senate race to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse in the 2006 general election.
“Running as an independent will free me from the constraints that party politics impose on candidates,” Chafee told supporters, according to the Associated Press.
With no primary challengers, Chafee is running as a fiscal conservative posed to limit property taxes but raise the sales tax in a state with 13 percent unemployment.
The Democratic candidates are General Treasurer Frank Caprio and Attorney General Patrick Lynch.
CIA Ordered To Assassinate 9/11 Suspect: Report
The CIA ordered to assassinate a supposed Al Qaeda operative in Germany in 2004, according to a Vanity Fair report.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The CIA ordered to assassinate a supposed Al Qaeda operative in Germany in 2004, according to a Vanity Fair report.
The suspect, Mamoun Darkazanli, was being investigated by German authorities for alleged ties to three 9/11 hijackers and the convicted bombers in the 1998 embassy attacks in East Africa, the report said.
The German government says that it knew nothing about the CIA program to kill Darkazanli, the magazine noted.
However, Green party parliamentarian Hans-Christian Stroebele said that such a denial is impossible.
“It can’t be true that they knew nothing,” Stroebele told the daily Hamburger Abendblatt.
In the end, Washington “chose not to pull the trigger,” it said, adding “This program died because of a lack of political will.”
The magazine quoted an unnamed source with connections to the CIA/Blackwater mission,
Because of the Vanity Fair report, prosecutors in Hamburg, Germany announced they were investigating into the assassination plot claims.
The CIA reportedly hired the Blackwater mercenary company to carry out the plot against Darkazanli.
