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What's wrong with the country

There are a lot of things wrong with college football. The most obvious thing that's wrong with college football is that the NCAA restrains its members from paying players, maintaining the illusion that they are student-athletes and enriching the universities. There are a lot of things wrong with this system. It is unfair. It corrupts universities. But a lot of people, mainly university administrators, football fans, and the NFL, like it for various reasons.

But Congress has decided to tackle a different injustice related to college football—the inadequacy of the Bowl Championship Series (the BCS). The BCS is arcane, complicated, and inevitably unfair, as any particular system of deciding a national champion has to be. Its unfairness and complexity generates a lot of heat and very little light on sports talk shows every fall and winter. But since that is the essence of sports talk shows (much heat, little light) one could even argue that the BCS system is perfect rather than deeply flawed.

But this feeling is not unanimous. A number of politicians, presumably motivated by either arrogance or the complaints of their constituents want something done about it.

Words fail me. Except to note that when Congress spends time doing stupid things it shouldn't be doing, it is not doing even stupider things it shouldn't be doing.

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