Fix the BCS? Yes we can

His presidency has yet to start and he’s already turned the sports realm into a blue state.

Just as promised during the election, he is concentrating on the problems at home rather than abroad.

Who knows if President-elect Barack Obama will someday blow up Iran, but the good news today is this: He wants to blow up the BCS.

God Bless America!

“If you’ve got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season, and many of them have one loss or two losses, there’s no clear decisive winner,” Obama said this week during an interview on “60 Minutes.” “We should be creating a playoff system.

“Eight teams,” he added. “That would be three rounds to determine a national champion. It would add three extra weeks to the season. You could trim back on the regular season. I don’t know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this. So, I’m going to throw my weight around a little bit. I think it’s the right thing to do.”

Excuse me for my premature exhortation, but … “Four more years!”

And, please, spare me the partisan rhetoric about how Obama should be worried about restoring the economy, overhauling the health care system and coordinating the end to two wars.

Even Republican presidents stick their nose in sports. Richard Nixon once drew up a play and sent it to former Washington Redskins coach George Allen, who used it (unsuccessfully) in a playoff game. And a few years ago, George W. Bush used part of his State of the Union address to rail against steroids in baseball.

Normally, I’m one who believes the president should be trying to identify the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden instead of identifying the national college football champion, but this is just too funny. Is there anything better than watching the BCS bigwigs and their money-grubbing cartel sweat out the threat of government intervention?

And don’t think the BCS conference commissioners aren’t genuinely worried about Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Don’t forget, it was Biden who called the BCS “rigged” and “un-American” a few years ago when the Senate Judiciary Committee started talking about looking into the inequitable nature of college football. The BCS commissioners were so eager to head off government interference back then they added an additional BCS bowl to give easier access to non-BCS teams.

Meanwhile, there likely will be undefeated and deserving teams from non-BCS leagues (see Boise State) that will get shut out of a $15 million bowl because they weren’t fortunate enough to be born into a big-money conference 100 years ago when college football leagues began forming.

If Barack Obama is truly serious about “spreading the wealth” in America, a great place to start would be with the BCS and its institutions of higher earning. If Joe the Plumber can own his own business, then shouldn’t Boise State be able to play for a national title?

Even if you don’t like politicians meddling in sports, you should relish Obama’s plan if for no other reason than this:

Seeing the terror-stricken look on the faces of the BCS good ol’ boys when Hillary Clinton is appointed the new czar of college football.