Utah Attorney General Investigating Antitrust Lawsuit Against BCS : It's About Time!

The University of Utah Utes deserve to be crowned the 2008 National Champions of college football. It is about time that the entire college football playoff system is restructured, so they say every year when one or two college football progams get screwed out of the National Championship title because they are not in the select few conferences that belong to the BCS. The college football playoff system might finally change if the Utah Attorney General gets his way.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is setting out to challenge the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and other state attorneys general are backing his investigation into antitrust law violations by the BCS. President Elect Barack Obama has already said he would like to do what he can to influence a change in the unpopular BCS conference college football ranking system. While most sports enthusiasts agree that a national championship playoff series should be created for all national college football teams, none have legally challenged the BCS financial awards and the unfair competitive advantage they create, until now.

The University of Utah Utes finished the 2008 college football season at 13-0, the only undefeated college football team in the nation. The Utah Utes are the first non-BCS conference college football team since the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) started in 1998, to have two undefeated seasons and win two BCS bowl games. The Utah Utes beat Pittsburgh in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl and Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl.

In 2008, the Utah Utes beat Alabama, BYU, TCU, and Oregon State, all of which were top 25 ranked teams when the Utes beat them. The Utah Utes beat bowl eligible teams Air Force, Colorado State, Alabama, BYU, TCU, and Oregon State, but under the current BCS system, cannot be considered for the National Championship.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff says the BCS in essence is a monopoly and is investigating antitrust laws for a possible lawsuit against the BCS. In order to win an antitrust lawsuit against the BCS, Shurtleff must prove that the BCS is a conspiracy that creates a monopoly. The Utah Attorney General says it is not about bragging rights but about millions of dollars going to a select few schools and creating an unfair competitive advantage and an unfair financial advantage to non-BCS college football programs across the nation.

The current BCS system perpetuates an unfair advantage for the conferences that receive automatic bids to the four BCS bowl games, the Rose, Sugar, Fiesta and Orange. If top recruits have a choice between signing to play with a member of a BCS conference or a non-BCS conference, they will likely sign with a team that has an opportunity to play for a National Championship. By limiting the millions of dollars in payouts these bowl games provide to a select few conferences, the non-BCS conferences fall farther behind in their ability to improve facilities and programs for all their athletic departments.

The University of Utah Utes Mountain West Conference and Sugar Bowl championship football team will be honored with a parade in downtown Salt Lake City on Friday, January 16. The parade will begin at 3 p.m. and will end in Washington Square.

Sources:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=290020333

http://www.kutv.com/content/sports/local/story/Utah-AG-BCS-may-violate-antitrust-laws/jnsbcyyCN0W9yYZQFQH_pQ.cspx

http://utahutes.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/utah-m-footbl-sched.html