Mommy, that man just said a new word:
“My understanding is they are going to go forward and this is the first step. Look, 87% of the BCS money goes to the privileged conferences. That amounts to billions of dollars. Only about 12% goes to the non-privileged conferences. It is very unfair and violative of the anti-trust laws. You saw what happened out of the Fiesta Bowl. Some of these people treat the BCS as their own theifdom where they can rip all the money out of it that they want to and it’s billions of dollars. [Emphasis added.] I think the Justice Department is totally responsible in going into this and looking at it, and I don’t see how they can’t conclude anything but that this is violative of the antitrust laws. We do need to go to a playoff system that really would work like all the other sports that we have, and frankly, by doing that, it would be more fair and more balanced. The unprivileged conferences would be treated more fairly and in the end I think we would have a better system.”
Nice Fiesta Bowl touch there, Senator. If playoffs are a cure for self-serving behavior, maybe we ought to put Congress in one.
A couple of things to unpack from that paragraph. First of all, billions of dollars? Billions with a “b”? Either Orrin can’t add, or, more ominously, he’s thinking about this. My money’s on the latter.
Second – again – it’s all about the money. Fairness? Hatch does not think that word means what the fans think it means. I’m not seeing even lip service given to “settling things on the field”. Hatch could care less what a playoff looks like, as long as the SEC starts taking financial care of the WAC.
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UPDATE: By the way, contra Hatch, a DOJ conclusion that an antitrust law violation exists isn’t any more dispositive than Mark Shurtleff’s conclusion. They’re prosecutors who will still need to get the courts to agree with them. And if you’re looking for a few reasons why that may not be as much of a slam dunk as Hatch suggests, here are some.
Get The Picture 
The Gotha Football Playoff System?
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need (or needs)”.
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So the staunch Republican Hatch is all about “spreading the wealth” with someone else’s money? Doesn’t sound very conservative in his approach.
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Now you’ve done it. Expect an avalanche of comments asserting that Hatch isn’t a conservative because… well, just because.
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He does have an “R” listed behind his name. It stands for RINO.
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Hatch, like all Republicans, IS a small-government conservative; just not when it comes to marital rights, reproductive rights, warrantless wiretaps, consensual drug and sex crimes, nation building, freedom from religion, and evidently now college football. I’m sure there are some I’ve missed but otherwise he is a man of his convictions.
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Prov, Hatch has his hypocricies like any politician. However, what is it about Hatch and ‘marital rights, reproductive rights, warrantless wiretaps, consensual drug and sex crimes, nation building, freedom from religion’ that bothers you?
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They are just policies he has generally supported that I don’t think are indicative of small, non-intrusive government which supposedly is something the Republican party represents. However, like you said, they all have their hypocrisies.
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“policies…indicative of small, non-intrusive government which supposedly is something the Republican party represents.”
Only when a Democrat is in the White House.
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Bingo. Both parties are big government parties. It’s just a matter of which deficit spending they want the money pissed away on. Both parties play the role of Montgomery Burns:
Burns: I have to raise sixty million dollars or we’re out of business.
Smithers: Why is that, sir?
Burns: I told you! I pissed it away!
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“The politicians don’t want your money. They want your soul. They want you to be worn down by taxes until you are dependent and helpless. When you subsidize poverty and failure you get more of both. “
Mother Teresa
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+1 for the beatified
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Which is no more or less hypocritical than the usually liberal, “power to the people” types defending the ol’ Boy Network, Country Club type arrangement that the BCS is today.
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Actually, a better way to characterize what Hatch is doing would be “Union-Busting” since you have to be a member of the BCS Union before you can get most of the plum jobs.
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“87% of the BCS money goes to the privileged conferences. That amounts to billions of dollars. ”
Yes please take the money the big schools get from unfair stuff like licensing rights, and ticket sales and give it to the smaller schools. Also, please distribute 4 and 5 star guys equally among all schools. While we are at it, lets please remove all unfair advantages such as school brand so that everyone will be treated equally. Home teams will wear all white and away teams all black.
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Preview…
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Senator, you let your distaste of Sen. Hatch get in your way of making a topical joke at his expense’
“If playoffs are a cure for self-serving behavior, maybe we ought to put Congress in one.”
They do have playoffs in politics…Straw Polls -> Primaries -> General Elections. See why we don’t want playoffs in college football…the playoffs in politics have given us Obama/Bush/Clinton as National Champions!
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Take it from somebody who knows a little something about the enemy and staying alive (so far so good but when and if Obama eliminates me, watch as Little Boots tries to take credit for that kill, too), this is my prediction:
Orrin http://www.internetweekly.org/images/hatchbo.jpg
will send by regular mail his playing card http://www.internetweekly.org/images/orrin_hatch_card.jpg
from one of the Gulf Wars to Delany, Slive, Scott and Hancock because Emmert is not picking up his mail.
Concurrent with that mailing, Orrin, somewhat vaguely aware of the other prong of the attack to burn down the NFL Plantation, an attack which parallels but does not yet intersect with his attack on the BCS, will decide to adopt some of those tactics on behalf of his old school BYU and all the non-privileged everywhere
As a counter-offensive, the other side has this in the works
Next week, Orrin will continue his all-out offensive and order his mercenaries to escalate the attack by moving into the next phase
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