BOISE - Monday, the 3rd ranked Boise State Bronco football team takes on 10th ranked Virginia Tech in Landover, Maryland on National TV. The big game has added momentum to a big debate about the BCS.
Boise State has the highest preseason ranking, ever, for a non-AQ or non-automatic qualifying team. And if they go undefeated, they'll have a chance at playing in the BCS National Title Game. But, does that make the BCS fair? Some say, not by a long shot. The Boise State University president along with most of the Idaho congressional delegation was on KTVB's Viewpoint, live from Washington D.C. Sunday morning, and they all are still crying foul.
"The only people who are saying that Boise is whining, or that we're whining, are the people in the BCS conferences," said Senator Mike Crapo.
The BCS has long been a target of fans of teams in non-BCS conferences. It seeds the National Title game by using votes, instead of a playoff. Also, a conference championship in the SEC, Big 12, or one of the other 4 BCS conferences means a BCS bowl for a team. But for non-AQ teams like BSU, they just have to hope.
"There has to be a level playing field," said Senator Jim Risch. "And as soon as you create a monopoly, which clearly has been done here, there's some legal problems there. I don't think it can stand, I think eventually it falls."
Teams in the BCS conferences get a bigger annual check from the BCS, and a BCS bowl, like the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, means a multi-million dollar payday.
"When you sit and look at it, I don't see how you cannot conclude that there is some kind of an anti-trust violation there," said Crapo.
"I don't care whether they have a bowl, or whether they have bowl games, or a playoff," said Congressman Mike Simpson. "That's not the issue. The issue is money."
That issue of money is why the president of BSU, Bob Kustra, and the Idaho Congressional delegation are getting into the BCS debate, and creating legislation to fight it.
"I have some legislation dealing with that, that would ask the Department of Justice to look at whether it is a restraint of trade, which I believe it is," said Simpson.
Crapo and Risch have a similar bill in the Senate, challenging the BCS.
"We have the attention of the Department of Justice," Kustra said. "We have the attention of the President of the United States. I think folks around this town realize that it better fix itself or somebody just might step in."
But it's not just about football, because it's not just teams that get more money. Those BCS dollars are spread around the entire school to things like academics.
"It boils down to simply money," said Crapo. "It trickles down through, not just an athletic program, but through all of the programs at a university."
While it's true that the BCS is getting more fair, this group says, that still doesn't make it fair.
"Why shouldn't a team like Boise State have the same opportunity that every other team in America does?" Risch said.
Proponents of the Bowl Championship Series say Boise State should be thanking the BCS. That, without it, the Broncos never would have played in two Fiesta Bowls, and would have had to finish those undefeated seasons in the Humanitarian or the Hawai'i Bowl.
