Downtrodden conferences told the Senate Thursday the College Bowl Alliance's snub of Brigham Young University last year proves it unfairly excludes competition.
Alliance supporters essentially replied life isn't fair - so deal with it.But senators from states where schools have been snubbed say unfairness in the system appears to violate anti-trust laws. And they said college football better improve the situation - such as going to a playoff system - or Congress might do it for them.
Alliance supporters said they are looking at tweaking the system to make it more fair, but don't want to dump it for a national playoff system, which is held in every other college sport, and even in Division I-AA, II and III football.
"You said, `Trust us,' and you failed," Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, told Bowl Alliance Chairman and Southeastern Conference Commissioner Roy Kramer in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. "That's why we don't trust you now."
The alliance was formed with the stated goal of helping arrange a national championship game between the nation's top-ranked schools. The three participating bowls must pick among champions of four-member conferences, and have two open slots supposedly to allow choosing the best other at-large teams.
Last year, BYU was ranked No. 5. BYU thought it should have won one of the at-large slots because the Western Athletic Conference was not allowed to join the alliance as a member.
Instead, alliance bowls chose lower-ranked Nebraska and Penn State (which also had worse records), saying they bring higher TV ratings and crowds that spend more money.
"As a team, we just wanted what we thought was a fair shot," testified Chad Lewis, a graduating BYU tight end. "To not invite BYU to an alliance game was simply unfair."
He added, "Is it fair to allow certain conferences to receive guaranteed millions every year, even when their teams are not the highest ranked . . . ? Part of the excitement of sports is the enthusiasm created by a Cinderella team beating the odds. Let's not allow the bowl alliance to crush that glass slipper before anyone has a chance to even try it on."
Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., who is upset No. 22-ranked Wyoming was not invited to any bowl at all last year, added that because the WAC divides bowl revenue among all its members, BYU's snub from a bowl that paid $8.6 million for another that paid only $2.5 million "amounted to a loss of almost $500,000 per school."
Bennett said the system, which allows six conferences in what will soon become an expanded alliance to control two-thirds of all bowl money available, is designed to "keep the rich rich, and the poor poor," and exclude them from top rankings.
But Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., who owns the Milwaukee Bucks pro basketball team, said sports isn't necessarily fair.
"Let's keep in mind that amateur sports in America is a business - a very big business. So, it's not surprising that post-season bowls are as much about ratings as rankings, as much about sponsorship as sportsmanship, as much about the bottom line as the line of scrimmage.
"This may not be right, but it is reality. So it's hard to blame a bowl for choosing Nebraska instead of BYU or the alliance for giving a priority to Notre Dame. After all, more Americans will travel to see the Fighting Irish than, say, the Fighting Rainbows of Hawaii," Kohl said.
Similarly, graduating Penn State quarterback Wally Richardson said while he sympathized with BYU, he believes his team still deserved its place in the alliance over BYU because "my teammates and I worked hard all year, losing only twice in a dozen regular season games against a rugged Big 10 schedule, and we deserved a place."
He added, "We don't always get what we believe we're entitled to because life isn't always fair. That's a hard lesson to learn, but a valuable one - in football or in a profession."
Kramer said the alliance is looking at ways to improve competition, mostly because of complaints from the WAC and Conference USA. That includes possibly giving them an automatic berth if any of their teams are ranked No. 6 or higher and sharing revenues.
WAC Commissioner Karl Benson said that isn't good enough. His conference wants an automatic berth if a team is ranked No. 12 or higher. He said WAC teams have a difficult time fairly rising in the ratings because of lack of media exposure and other factors.
Several senators, including Bennett, suggested a playoff system may be the only truly fair way to crown a champion. But NCAA Executive Director Cedric Dempsey said member schools have opposed that break with tradition but plan to look at possible improvements to the bowl system.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who thinks the University of Louisville of Conference USA has often been snubbed, complained the absence of a playoff system would leave bowls controlled by chambers of commerce and business groups more interested in making money than ensuring fairness.
Richard Circuit, board member of the Plymouth Holiday Bowl, recommended another alternative. He suggests the No. 1 and No. 2 teams be assigned to a different bowl each year on a rotating schedule - and prohibit other bowls to contract in advance with anyone except conference champions.
If that happens, he said, "other games will again become important because teams have a choice about where they want to go. The bowls can sell their matchups as one they wanted, not one that was assigned by conference contract."