[Senate Hearing 111-352] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] S. Hrg. 111-352 THE BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: IS IT FAIR AND IN COMPLIANCE WITH ANTITRUST LAW? ======================================================================= HEARING before the SUBCOMMITTEE ON ANTITRUST, COMPETITION POLICY AND CONSUMER RIGHTS of the COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION __________ JULY 7, 2009 __________ Serial No. J-111-35 __________ Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 55-645 WASHINGTON : 2010 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For Sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; (202) 512�091800 Fax: (202) 512�092104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402�090001 PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont, Chairman HERB KOHL, Wisconsin JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York JON KYL, Arizona RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland JOHN CORNYN, Texas SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island TOM COBURN, Oklahoma AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota EDWARD E. KAUFMAN, Delaware ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania AL FRANKEN, Minnesota Bruce A. Cohen, Chief Counsel and Staff Director Matt Miner, Republican Chief Counsel ------ Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights HERB KOHL, Wisconsin, Chairman CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota TOM COBURN, Oklahoma EDWARD E. KAUFMAN, Delaware ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania AL FRANKEN, Minnesota Carolina Holland, Democratic Chief Counsel/Staff Director Jace Johnson, Republican Chief Counsel C O N T E N T S ---------- STATEMENTS OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS Page Kohl, Hon. Herb, a U.S. Senator from the State of Wisconsin...... 1 WITNESSES Brett, Barry, Esq., Partner, Troutman Sanders, New York, New York 8 Monts, William, III, Esq., Partner, Hogan and Hartson, Washington, D.C................................................ 12 Perlman, Harvey, Chancellor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska.............................................. 10 Young, Michael, President, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah........................................................... 6 SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD Brett, Barry, Esq., Partner, Troutman Sanders, New York, New York: statement.................................................... 33 FoxSports.com, December 12, 2008, article.................... 61 FoxSports.com, November 25, 2008, article.................... 65 FoxSports.com, March 13, 2006, article....................... 66 FoxSports.com, July 20, 2007, article........................ 68 FoxSports.com, BCS Chronology, article....................... 70 Global Competition Policy, May 2009, article................. 78 Rush, Hon. Bobby L., a U.S. House of Representatives from the State of Illinois, statement............................... 86 Bleymaier, Gene, Director of Athletics, Boise State University, Boise, Idaho, statement........................ 88 Fox, Derrick, President and Chief Executive Officer, Valero Alamo Bowl, San Antonio, Texas, statement.................. 91 Troutman Sanders, charts..................................... 99 Hatch, Hon. Orrin, a U.S. Senator from the State of Utah, news release and letter.................................... 106 Troutman Sanders, charts..................................... 108 Mountain West, Colorado Springs, Colorado, proposal.......... 110 Troutman Sanders, charts..................................... 123 Law360, New York, New York, article.......................... 127 Kaplan, Paul Michael, Esq., Partner, and Jennifer L. Bougher, Esq., Associate, Arent Fox LLP, Washington, D.C., statement and attachments.................................................... 137 Hatch, Hon. Orrin G., a U.S. Senator from the State of Utah, and Hon. Robert F. Bennett, a U.S. Senator from the State of Utah, May 8, 2009, letter............................... 163 Frohnmayer, Dave, President, University of Oregon, and John D. Swofford, Commissioner, Atlantic Coast Conference, June 9, 2009, letter............................................ 165 Kustra, Bob, President, Boise State University on behalf of Presidents and Chancellors, Western Athletic Conference, statement...................................................... 171 Monts, William, III, Esq., Partner, Hogan and Hartson, Washington, D.C., statement.................................... 174 Perlman, Harvey, Chancellor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, statement................................... 185 Swofford, John D., Commissioner, Atlantic Coast Conference, Greensboro, North Carolina, statement.......................... 195 Thompson, Craig, Commissioner, Mountain West Conference, Colorado Springs, Colorado, statement................................... 207 Young, Michael, President, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, statement................................................ 230 THE BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: IS IT FAIR AND IN COMPLIANCE WITH ANTITRUST LAW? ---------- TUESDAY, JULY 7, 2009 U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, D.C. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:30 p.m., in room SD-226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Herb Kohl, Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding. Present: Senators Kohl, Schumer, and Hatch. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. HERB KOHL, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF WISCONSIN Chairman Kohl. Good afternoon to everybody here today. Today we will examine the state of competition in the college football Bowl Championship Series. College football is a sport enjoyed by millions of fans and is the central focus of the athletic programs at dozens of colleges and universities across our great Nation. I myself, of course, am a Badger fan and a fan of the Big 10. The revenues derived from participation in the end-of-year college football bowl games are essential to supporting college athletic departments. Dozens of lower-profile sports enjoyed by thousands of students are funded by successful college football programs. The Bowl Championship Series was created more than a decade ago in an effort to find a fair and equitable way to select universities to participate in the lucrative end-of-year bowl games and in order to have an objective means to select teams to participate in a National Championship game. While many believe this system is working well, critics of the BCS argue that it unfairly disadvantages those universities that are not aligned with the large athletic conferences. Today's hearings will be an examination of whether the current BCS system truly serves the interest of competition of universities and of millions of college football fans. Today's hearing was called at the request of Senator Orrin Hatch, and so I will now turn over the gavel to my good friend and our esteemed Ranking Member who will chair and conduct this hearing. I thank Senator Hatch for his work on this issue, and I also thank our panel of witnesses for the testimony that they will be offering today. Senator Orrin Hatch. Senator Hatch [Presiding.] Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your willingness to schedule this hearing because I believe it will address a number of important issues, not the least of which is the legality of the Bowl Championship Series. I continue to enjoy our long service together on this Committee, Mr. Chairman, due in large part to your willingness to work with those of us on both sides of the aisle to address a wide variety of issues. Indeed, your willingness to address the concerns of members from both parties is almost unheard of in today's very partisan climate. Turning to the BCS, I think we all know Congress' interest in this issue in not a recent development. In the 10 years the BCS has been in existence, numerous congressional committees have held hearings to examine the legal and consumer protection issues associated with the BCS system. In fact, I chaired a hearing in the full Judiciary Committee on this issue in 2003. And over the years some changes have been made to the BCS system. Ostensibly, the system is now more open to non- preferred conferences than it once was. However, even with these changes in place, the BCS continues to place nearly half of all the schools in college football at a competitive and, perhaps more importantly, a financial disadvantage. These disadvantages are not the result of fair competition, but of the inherent structural inequities of the BCS system. And for these reasons, I believe that this hearing is necessary today. There is no shortage of opinion and ideas on how the BCS system should be changed. Indeed, I think any time college football fans gather together to watch a game, one of them has a playoff idea that they believe will solve all of college football's problems. For today I think our time would be best served by leaving the debate over such alternatives in the living rooms of our country and instead focus on answering one question: Does the BCS comply with the law? The law requires that all business enterprises meet certain standards with regard to pro- and anticompetitive behavior. Our focus should, therefore, be on comparing the current system with the standards required by our Nation's antitrust laws. Personally, I believe there are enough antitrust problems with the current BCS system that we will have more than enough material to cover during the course of this hearing. Put simply, Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act prohibits contracts, combinations, or conspiracies to limit competition. I have said before that I do not believe a plainer description of the BCS exists. The system itself is an agreement between the preferred conferences and the major Bowl Games as to how they will compete with one another and, more apparently, how they will compete against the non-preferred conferences. More still, under the current BCS regime, each of the six privileged conferences is guaranteed to receive a large share of the BCS revenue to distribute among their member schools. The remaining five conferences, which include nearly half of all the teams in Division I, all share a much smaller portion of the BCS revenue, even if one of their teams is fortunate enough to play their way into a BCS game. Over the lifetime of the BCS, the preferred conferences have received nearly 90 percent of the total revenues. These disparities are explicit in the BCS arrangement. It brings to mind the major Supreme Court decisions prohibiting price fixing and horizontal restrictions on output. Under Section 1, such arrangements are prohibited. Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act is violated when one is in possession of monopoly power and uses that power in a way not associated with growth or development as a consequence of having a superior product or business acumen. I think there is a strong argument that the BCS may very well be in violation of that provision as well. Practically speaking, there are two relevant markets in question here. Given the drastic difference between the revenues and the prominence of the BCS bowls when compared to other bowl games played throughout late December and early January, I think it is safe to conclude that the BCS bowls constitute a market that is all their own. And if Supreme Court precedence has any relevance here, the National Championship game also constitutes a separate market. The BCS enjoys a monopoly over both these markets and has, through what appears to be deliberate action, restricted the ability of teams from non-privileged conferences to participate. The BCS selects participants primarily through the use of subjective polling, complex computer ranking systems, and a set of biased selection criteria. Not surprisingly, this system expressly limits the number of outside teams that are able to qualify for one of the lucrative and prestigious BCS bowl games. Take last year, for example. In 2008, two teams--Utah and Boise State--met the qualifications for the automatic BCS berth, but under the rules only one of them, the University of Utah, was invited to play in a BCS game. Furthermore, four teams--Utah, Boise State, Texas Christian, and Brigham Young-- finished the season ranked higher in the BCS' own standings than at least one of the teams that received an automatic bid. Clearly, the BCS bowl games exist in a category all their own, and the architects of the BCS system appear to have intentionally excluded teams from non-privileged conferences, not on the basis of competition, but due to prearranged agreements. The Section 2 problems continue with regard to the National Championship game, as the current system ensures that only teams from the BCS' preferred conferences can qualify to play in the National Championship game. This is evidenced by the fact that although several teams from non-preferred conferences have gone undefeated over the years, none of them has even a remote chance of qualifying for the National Championship game. Indeed, last season alone, two teams--Utah and Boise State--finished the regular season with better records than any team from any of the preferred conferences. Yet neither was even a consideration when it came to crowning a national champion. The University of Utah finished the season by routing a team that had been ranked number one for much of the season. It is hard to imagine what more Utah could have done with its season in search of a National Championship. Yet under the BCS system, they were eliminated from such consideration before the season even started. Section 2 was specifically intended to prevent such exclusionary tactics on the part of monopolists. The problems with the BCS extend well beyond the football field and address more significant issues than qualifying for either a National Championship or participation in a BCS game. Ultimately, when we are talking about college football and the BCS, we are talking about institutions of higher learning. Each of these schools faces unique challenges when it comes to funding athletics and academic initiatives. The purposeful disparities in funding created by the BCS ensure that schools in privileged conferences, even those whose football teams are not all that competitive, enjoy advantages in offering scholarships and providing staff and facilities for their athletic programs. The increased visibility that a company's automatic qualification into a BCS game guarantees that the teams from outside conferences face disadvantages with regard to recruiting players and hiring top coaches. This would be tolerable if the inequities were the result of inferior performance on the part of the teams on the outside, but I do not believe that the evidence really supports such a claim. In addition to facing unique financial challenges, colleges and universities are charged with a unique mission: educating our young people and preparing them for their careers. In addition, they are in large part subsidized by the taxpayers, either through the receipt of funds or by enjoying tax-exempt status. That being the case, I believe they should be held to the highest legal and ethical standards. For these reasons and others, the BCS has garnered the attention of Congress and the President, not to mention the dissatisfaction of fans throughout the country. Yet after the 2008 season, when the flaws in the BCS system were made all the more obvious than ever, the architects have sought to extend the status quo for the foreseeable future. Of course, the new agreement is even more lucrative and quite likely promises to expand the divisions between the privileged and the non-privileged programs. It is my understanding that even as Congress has focused its attention on the system, the BCS appears to be attempting to strong-arm those in weaker bargaining positions into signing a new agreement by July 9, many months before the current contract expires. Given the widespread public criticism of the current system and its obvious flaws with regard to competition, I had hoped that going forward would see a greater willingness to adapt on the part of the BCS. However, that does not appear to be the case. Now, I am certain that some members of today's panel disagree with my conclusions. I welcome their testimonies and will give them ample opportunity to make their case to change not only my mind but the minds of, I think, millions of others as well. I am hopeful that rather than being just another chapter in the endless BCS debate, this hearing will shed some real light on the legal issues surrounding these matters. And toward that end, I want to thank all members of the panel for their attendance here today, and I particularly want to thank the distinguished Chairman for allowing me to conduct this hearing. Now I would like to just introduce our panel of distinguished witnesses. Our first witness to testify today is President Michael Young. President Young is the president of the University of Utah. He is the former Dean and Law Professor of the George Washington University Law School. In addition, President Young was a professor at Columbia Law School. He also is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where he was note editor of the Law Review. Next we will hear from Mr. Barry Brett. Mr. Brett is a partner of Troutman Sanders in New York. He is also chairman of the American Bar Association's Antitrust Section Committee on Sports, Labor, and Entertainment. Mr. Brett represents the Mountain West Conference here today, as I understand it. Also testifying today is Harvey Perlman, the Chancellor of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Chancellor Perlman is the former Dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law. Chancellor Perlman currently sits on the BCS Oversight Committee, and we are grateful to have all of you here today. Our next witness will be Mr. William Monts. Mr. Monts is a partner at Hogan and Hartson in Washington, D.C. He has 20 years of experience in litigating antitrust cases, and for 18 of those years, Mr. Monts has represented various interests in post-season college football. I want to thank you all for appearing today. We want to welcome you to the Subcommittee's hearing, and after each of you gives your testimony, we will proceed to questions. I do not know who is going to show up here today, but if they do not, I will have plenty of questions. However, before I swear in today's witnesses, I would like to thank Mr. Paul Michael Kaplan, a partner at Arent Fox, for his assistance to the Subcommittee in preparing for today's hearing. I would also note that the Subcommittee was looking forward to hearing the testimony of Bob Kustra, the president of Boise State. Unfortunately, due to a family emergency, he is unable to be with us today. Accordingly, I ask for unanimous consent that President Kustra's and Mr. Kaplan's testimony to the Subcommittee be included in the record and, without objection, so ordered. Now, if I could ask all of the witnesses to rise and raise their right hand as I administer the oath, I would appreciate it. Do you affirm that the testimony you are about to give before the Committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Mr. Young. I do. Mr. Brett. I do. Mr. Perlman. I do. Mr. Monts. I do. Senator Hatch. Thank you. So, President Young, we will proceed with you first, and we will just go right across the table. We are very grateful to all of you for being here, and we look forward to taking this testimony, and hopefully it will answer some of the questions that many of us have. President Young. STATEMENT OF MICHAEL YOUNG, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH Mr. Young. Senator Hatch, thank you very much for holding this very important hearing. I would not be here today if all universities had a realistic opportunity to compete for the National Championship and if the BCS revenues were equitably distributed among the institutions. If those were the facts and the only question was whether the correct teams were chosen to play in the championship each year, then the commissioners of the 11 Football Bowl Subdivision universities and conferences could adequately address any necessary tweaking to the BCS. But, unfortunately, that is not the case. I am here this afternoon to talk to you about the inherent unfairness of the BCS. The BCS embraces favoritism rather than fairness in three critical respects, among others. First, the champions of six of the 11 conferences that play major college football called the Automatic Qualifying Conferences--or, as you have so eloquently put it, ``the privileged conferences''--automatically receive berths in the five most prestigious and lucrative bowls each year, known as the BCS bowls. The champions of the other five conferences, called the non-AQ Conferences, must earn a place in the BCS bowls, and practically speaking, at most, as you have pointed out, only one non-AQ team will receive such a berth. The AQ Conferences, along with Notre Dame, effectively guarantee themselves nine of the ten berths in the top bowls every year, regardless of their performance on the field. Let me explain what I mean by that. Performance should be the measure by which all conferences, AQ and non-AQ alike, receive BCS bowl berths. If performance were the governing criteria, the Mountain West would be entitled to AQ Conference status. Over the past 2 years, the Mountain West has had a better record in interconference games against the AQ Conferences than any of the other ten conferences. Over the past 4 years, the Mountain West has been extremely competitive against the AQ Conferences, as I have indicated in my written testimony. Off-the-field agreements should not, as the BCS mandates, trump on-the-field performance. Second, the BCS has provided major college football with a dubious distinction: it is the only sport that effectively eliminates half of its teams from the championship before the season even begins. The BCS system effectively tells the world--and, more importantly, the pollsters--that non-AQ Conference teams are undeserving of an automatic bid to a BCS bowl. Coaches and administrators from AQ Conferences perpetuate the stereotype by frequently denigrating the non-AQ Conferences, stating, for example, that they are not real conferences. As a consequence, non-AQ teams are never appropriately ranked in the pollster popularity contests. Cementing the fate of non-AQ Conference universities is the fact that just two teams are selected at the close of the regular season to compete in the championship game. This fact, combined with second-class status of the non-AQ Conferences mandated by the BCS, leads to the inevitable exclusion of non- AQ Conference teams from competing for the National Championship. In 2008, as you pointed out, Utah was denied an opportunity to compete for the National Championship. When your conference has the top interconference record against AQ Conference teams, and your university from that same conference has the top record in the country, you should have a chance to compete for the title. Championships should be decided by competition, not conspiracy. Third, the revenue inequities under the BCS system are stark. In 2008, Mountain West Champion Utah was ranked far ahead of the ACC and Big East Champions. Mountain West went 6-1 in regular season play against the PAC 10. And all four of these conferences sent one team to a BCS bowl game. Yet the three AQ conferences each received $18.6 million from the BCS, whereas the Mountain West received only $9.8 million. The story over time is even more telling. During the past 4 years, the Mountain West has competed very well against all six AQ Conferences, yet over that same period of time, Mountain West has received an average of $18 million, or 75 percent less than the six AQ Conferences. And over the past four seasons, the AQ Conferences have received $492 million, while the non-AQ Conferences have received less than $62 million. Simply stated, the competitive and revenue inequities of the BCS system condemns the non-AQ Conferences to a permanent underclass. Non-AQ Conferences struggle to build new facilities, pay competitive coach salaries, finance effective recruiting, and fund student scholarships. These economic inequities harm football programs, but also harm other sports that rely heavily upon the revenue from football. Student athletes can see these economic disparities between the programs, and they hear the message loud and clear from the AQ Conference coaches, that playing for a non-AQ team means no chance for a National Championship experience. Finally, and in my judgment, most importantly, as educators we work hard to teach the right values in the classroom. We want our students to take away from their college experience the belief that hard work and skill are the necessary tools to achieve. We want our students to strive to make all playing fields in life level and to give everyone the same opportunities to succeed. It is tough, however, to make these values stick when we teach a different message on the playing field. A BCS system that relegates non-AQ Conferences to permanent second-class status, that denies nearly half the schools of any opportunity to compete for the National Championship, and rewards nearly 87 percent of the revenues to the AQ Conferences, regardless of their on-field performance, sends the wrong message to our students. The BCS changes the old saying, ``If you can't beat them, join them,'' to this: ``If you can't beat them, eliminate them.'' This is a bad message and actions, after all, speak far louder than words. A variety of justifications for this system have been offered in the past by representatives of the BCS. As outlined in my written submission, in my judgment, none of these even pass the straight-faced argument test. And, in fact, some even cut entirely in the opposite direction. But the essential point is simple and straightforward. This is a system designed to channel money to certain universities based on an agreement, not on achievement. Championships and opportunities are made available by conspiracy, not by competition. It harms higher educations, our student athletes, and the American public. Thank you. I would be delighted to take questions. [The prepared statement of Mr. Young appears as a submission for the record.] Senator Hatch. Thank you, President Young. We will turn to Barry Brett now, a distinguished attorney. STATEMENT OF BARRY BRETT, ESQ., PARTNER, TROUTMAN SANDERS, NEW YORK, NEW YORK Mr. Brett. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for inviting us to speak today on this very important issue and for holding this hearing. I am the chair of the antitrust practice group of Troutman Sanders. I was chair of the Sports and Entertainment Committee of the American Bar Association Antitrust Section and of the New York State Bar Association Antitrust Section. I was on the governing committee of the ABA Forum of Sports and Entertainment. In short, I am an antitrust lawyer by trade and a sports junkie by choice. I am very gratified to see the Committee addressing the Bowl Championship Series, which controls major post-season college football bowl games, controls the fictional National Championship, and uses this control to exclude all but its founding members from fair access to this competition and the hundreds of millions of dollars involved. The system offends the most basic antitrust law principles of competition. There are 88 playoffs run by the NCAA covering college sports. All can accommodate the needs of the students and academia. In what was just historically called Division I college football, however, the NCAA does not act. Instead, it allows a self-designated cartel, created and controlled by six conferences, to set the rules for access to major post-season football games and its National Championship. It allows these conferences to control the enormous revenue they generate and to prevent the playoff desired by the public. It is estimated that a playoff system would produce twice the current revenues of the BCS system. In antitrust terms and in the jargon of my business, the BCS system ``limits output, limits consumer choice, and restrains competition in violation of the Sherman Act.'' Our written submission details the history and workings of the BCS and sets forth many of the applicable legal precedents and principles. The BCS guarantees each of its six conferences a place in one of the major bowls and a large payday based on agreements rather than performance. In practice, the foreclosure has been almost complete. Teams from other conferences face great barriers to qualify for one of the major bowls, and they face what effectively have been insurmountable battles to qualifying for a chance at the fictional National Championship. The six conferences have reserved for themselves approximately 87 percent of the BCS revenues. There have been 90 major bowl appearances by the original conference teams and only four appearances by non-original conference teams during the history of the BCS. Every contestant in the National Championship game has been from one of the original conferences. We have set forth in our printed materials data and studies showing this inequity and the manner in which it is not justified by performance. By any objective criteria, the excluded teams are as good as many of those included. Yes, the anticompetitive effects and economic disparities are dramatic. Some months ago, the Mountain West Conference submitted to the BCS a detailed proposal which provided for a playoff system that would finally yield a national champion based on competition and equal opportunity rather than reliance on poorly drawn, rarely understood, and deeply flawed formulae. The proposal would preserve the historic bowl games, add exciting games, and generate much more income for all concerned. On June 15th, USA Today reported that the proposal was not even put on the BCS agenda, and it has been summarily rejected. When rebuffed, the Mountain West Conference asked my partner Roy Bell and me to analyze and discuss with them whether the BCS structure violates Federal antitrust law. We have prepared a report, which has not been adopted as a position of the Mountain West Conference, but has been codified into a detailed legal memorandum to this Committee. In the words of the Supreme Court, ``The Sherman Act was designed to be a comprehensive charter of economic liberty, aimed at preserving free and unfettered competition as the rule of trade.'' The BCS offends everything the Sherman Act is designed to accomplish. Instead of competition on the merits, the BCS is a commercial enterprise which flouts the Sherman Act and sacrifices on-field competition in order to protect an enormous revenue stream. The BCS has nothing to do with amateurism or education, but is a commercial venture based on barriers to competition. The BCS has negotiated a new TV contract for almost $500 million. Each of the six controlling conferences is guaranteed at least $18 million a year. From the point of view of fans and players, the goals and barriers of sports are corrupted by commercial goals. Competitive success does not yield access to the National Championship. Twenty-five years ago, the Supreme Court established that NCAA rules limiting the televising of games was a violation of the Sherman Act. The NCAA fought vigorously to protect its restrictions, just as the BCS now defends its restrictions. The finding of a violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act in that case was one of the great foundations for college football as we know it today and its enormous popularity. Every element of a violation of the Sherman Act is present in the BCS. The agreement required for a Section 1 violation is clear. The anticompetitive effects are manifest and shown in study after study. Price competition among the bowls is eliminated by agreement. The claimed benefits of the arrangement are illusory and easily achieved by less anticompetitive alternatives. Similarly, all of the elements of a Sherman Act Section 2 violation are apparent. The BCS has secured, maintained, and exercised the power to exclude competition and control price, which are the hallmarks of the offense of monopolization. It has reserved for itself the spots in the major bowl games without regard to competitive success. The BCS will not even consider a playoff, and it reflects all of the evils of monopoly power that the Sherman Act prohibits. The competing teams, the schools, the student athletes, and the public want a playoff and the competition on the merits, which the Sherman Act requires. A group of competing businesses would face criminal antitrust scrutiny if they tried a stunt like this. Antitrust principles require that it end and that we bring back the principles of equal opportunity, competitive reward, and fair play on and off the field. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [The prepared statement of Mr. Brett appears as a submission for the record.] Senator Hatch. Well, thank you. We appreciate your testimony. Chancellor Perlman, we will take your testimony now. STATEMENT OF HARVEY PERLMAN, CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN, LINCOLN, NEBRASKA Mr. Perlman. Senator Hatch, thank you. I acknowledge that there are football fans and sports writers who believe the ideal system to crown a national champion is an NFL-style playoff. Unfortunately, those of us responsible for our universities' involvement in post-season football must try to craft a system that reflects the restraints of the real world. In my written statement, I have discussed those realities at length, and I will only highlight three of them here. First, any system of play must recognize that athletes who play football are also students. For the vast majority of them their success in the classroom will have far more to do with their success as adult citizens than their performance on the football field. As presidents and chancellors, this reality must be our highest priority. Second, not every school in Division I is equal on the football field or in any other field of endeavor. Each university has pillars of strength that were created by conscious investments, hiring of great leaders, natural advantages, significant philanthropic donations, dumb luck, or a combination of these factors. All students, like student athletes, can make individual choices among the strengths of the various institutions in which they could enroll, and these choices may enhance or diminish their future opportunities. This is a reality that cannot be ignored, nor is it one that can be easily changed. Third, any system designed to determine a national champion in intercollegiate football can only come about through the agreement of those universities who consistently field highly ranked teams. A system that did not involve schools from the six automatic qualifying conferences and Notre Dame could not claim to be one that is likely to produce a national champion. This is not true of other conferences. To secure the participation of these essential conferences, the system must provide revenue in excess of their other opportunities, must be consistent with their academic values, must take into account the impact on the fans who provide their schools with support, must preserve the excitement of the regular season, and must honor the long-standing relationships that they have had with the bowls and the communities those bowls support. The current BCS is able to satisfy those requirements; we have yet to see an alternative arrangement that does the same. This has not worked out to the disadvantage of the five conferences that do not automatically qualify for a BCS bowl. Before the BCS, none of the teams in these conferences had agreements with any of these major bowls, and these teams seldom played in them. Since the BCS, they have had more access to these bowls. Because of the BCS, these conferences also receive considerably more revenue than they did under the old system. In fact, we know informally from media experts that the payments we make to these conferences is, in fact, a subsidy of their athletic programs because the access we have provided does not increase the market value of the BCS product. The bottom line is that with the BCS these conferences have increased their access to and exposure in national television markets, and they have substantially enhanced the revenue available to them from post-season football. There might be many concerns expressed about the BCS, but it is hard for me to see how these conferences can claim to be disadvantaged. Finally, there is an assumption that the uneven distribution of revenues generated by the BCS is responsible for disparity in athletic success. When considered from an institutional perspective, the revenue a university like mine receives from the BCS is a very small proportion of our total revenue. My university's athletic department budget for next year will be approximately $75 million. If the Big 12 Conference places one team in a BCS bowl, the University of Nebraska can expect a distribution of approximately $1.5 million. This is 2 percent of our budget. To put this in perspective, if we added an additional home football game, we could more than double that revenue. To be sure, some schools are thought to have an advantage because of the schedule they play, their history of success, the size of their budgets, and the support they receive from fans and donors. But at the beginning of the season, every Division I football team has an equal chance to become national champion if they rank first or second in the country. You would not predict that the University of Nebraska would have enjoyed the success we have had on the football field. We come from one of the smallest population States in the country and must recruit athletes nationwide. We do not have mountains or seashores or large cities or a moderate climate capable of attracting student athletes, and we labored long in the obscurity of losing seasons. But we sustained a loyal fan base, we hired and retained gifted coaches who were skilled at recruiting student athletes getting them to play at the height or even sometimes beyond their athletic abilities. We built this success, as we have built our recent academic success, by working harder and being more creative than the competition. We believe these options remain open for all schools in Division I. We do not believe that the BCS has made this process more difficult. In fact, by granting greater access and exposure to these schools than ever before and providing them with more revenue than ever before, we have created the opportunities for them to be successful. Thank you. [The prepared statement of Mr. Perlman appears as a submission for the record.] Senator Hatch. Well, thank you, Chancellor Perlman. Let's go to you, Mr. Monts, now and take your testimony. STATEMENT OF WILLIAM MONTS III, ESQ., PARTNER, HOGAN AND HARTSON, WASHINGTON D.C. Mr. Monts. Thank you, Senator Hatch. I am William Monts. I am a partner in the law firm of Hogan and Hartson here in Washington, D.C. and have practiced for nearly 20 years in the firm's antitrust, competition, and consumer protection practice group. For roughly 18 years, I have had the privilege of working on various matters related to post-season college football-- first representing certain bowl games in connection with the Bowl Coalition, and in the past 14 years, representing certain conferences in connection with the Bowl Alliance and now the Bowl Championship Series. I have thought about these issues a great deal over the past 18 years, not merely as a lawyer, but as an avid fan of the game. I have spent a great deal of time studying its history and the athletic, economic, and legal developments that have shaped it. I am going to limit my remarks today to an analysis under Section 1 of the Sherman Act and will assume, for the sake of argument, that a number of threshold issues that I covered in my written statement could be proved by a complainant against the BCS. I do that because, one, if the BCS passes muster under Section 1, I believe it also passes muster quite easily under Section 2; and I want to focus on those issues that I understand are animating the hearing that brings us here today. The BCS would be analyzed as a joint venture under Section 1 of the Sherman Act and would be reviewed under the so-called rule of reason under which procompetitive benefits of an arrangement are weighed against the anticompetitive effects. Only if the anticompetitive effects outweigh the procompetitive benefits is the agreement unlawful. So let me turn to that analysis. I believe there are at least four procompetitive effects that I would like to highlight here today. First, the BCS creates a guaranteed national championship match-up between the top two ranked teams each year. No conference or institution can produce that product on its own. It can only result from an agreement among the conferences and the University of Notre Dame. Without the agreement, there is no such game. Second, the BCS creates attractive match-ups between conference champions and highly ranked runner-up teams in the other BCS bowls based on the a full-season's results. The old bowl system often resulted in match-ups that were created after seven or eight games, as a bowl filled its empty slots by effectively committing to take a particular team. If that team later went on a losing streak at the end of the season, nonetheless, the bowl was often left with no other choice because other bowls had paired up with other attractive teams. Third, the BCS preserves and strengthens the bowl system overall, thus creating the maximum number of post-season opportunities for student athletes, coaches, and fans and the maximum number of post-season games. It is important to note that there are only five bowl games that are a part of the BCS and that there are 29 other bowl games that are independent of the BCS and make their own decisions about teams that they choose and conferences with which they will have affiliation arrangements. Fourth, and finally, the BCS and the bowl system generally enhances the college football regular season by making every game meaningful. Today college football is widely regarded as having the best regular season in all of American sport. That I suggest to you, is largely the result of the BCS and the bowl system. Now, against these substantial procompetitive benefits stand what I understand to be two alleged anticompetitive effects. The first is that the BCS denies conferences access to the BCS bowls and the National Championship; and, secondly, that the BCS revenue is not split equally. Neither is an anticompetitive effect. The purpose of the antitrust laws is to protect not producers of college football but consumers. And in this case the immediate consumers are the bowl organizations and television networks; the ultimate consumers are the fans. If the BCS were to disappear tomorrow, nothing would arise to take its place. We would return to the old bowl system in which each conference competed with one another for the most attractive bowl slots. When that is understood, it is easy to see why the exclusion argument fails. BCS bowls could today, if they wished, always demand to have a champion from one of the five conferences without an annual automatic berth. Similarly, they could take one with an at-large pick. They have chosen not to do so. The BCS, nonetheless, guarantees those conferences access to those bowl games under certain circumstances--guarantees they would not have otherwise. In short, it enhances their bowl opportunities over what would be available to it in the absence of the BCS and, therefore, there is no denial of access. As for the championship game, if there is no BCS, there is no championship game and, thus, there is no denial of access there either. On the revenue distribution point, the BCS provides the five conferences now with revenues they would not be able to obtain on their own. Thus, far from being anticompetitive, it subsidizes those leagues. In any event, revenue distribution within a joint venture is not the concern of antitrust law. The issue is market output, and here there is no negative effect on output by the BCS. Either the venture is lawful and does not restrict output, in which case how it divides up revenues among its 11 members, 12 members in this case, is of no antitrust concern; or the venture is not lawful, in which case it is enjoined and there will not be any revenues at all to distribute. At bottom then, the BCS has several procompetitive benefits and its alleged anticompetitive effects are non-existent. Let me make one final point because I think it further demonstrates why an antitrust claim is of no benefit to the five conferences without annual automatic berths. Even if one were to assume a Sherman Act violation, the remedy for the prevailing party is an injunction against the arrangement. The BCS will go away, but no court is going to write a playoff system or some alternative structure, establish selection procedures, negotiate relevant contracts, allocate costs and revenues that might be earned from the arrangement; that is just not what courts do. Having declared one form of cooperation--and a very mild form at that--unlawful, no court is going to set about crafting from whole cloth a more restrictive form of cooperation that would be required to have a playoff. The Sherman Act does not give it the authority to do so, and the Supreme Court in the last 5 years has cautioned against these sorts of judicial misadventures. Instead, we would be back to the old bowl system--but with one important caveat. With the judgment on the record that the BCS is unlawful, I suspect that conferences would be far less willing to entertain the concept of a playoff which would rest upon an agreement among the exact same parties, with the exact same market power, that would be far more restrictive than BCS and likely to have substantially adverse effects on the bowls. The peculiar irony of an antitrust claim is that it is likely to sound the death knell of the alleged playoff that the critics have insisted and claimed they want. In that sense, it would be a pyrrhic victory and would leave those conferences from whom the critics profess concern in a much worse position. Again, Senator, it is an honor to appear before you today, and I look forward to answering any questions you may have. [The prepared statement of Mr. Monts appears as a submission for the record.] Senator Hatch. Thank you, Mr. Monts. Let us start with you, President Young. It is my understanding that privileged--I call them ``privileged''-- conferences can rely upon receiving a substantial yearly sum of BCS revenues. Under the BCS system, such revenues are guaranteed to the teams in the six privileged conferences regardless of how they perform on the field; and proponents of the BCS have implied that the revenue distribution is both fair and equal and that every conference that receives one bid in a BCS game in a year receives the same amount. Now, I personally think the numbers tell a different story. Is that true? And what are the practical effects of the current distribution of revenue? Mr. Young. Senator, let me answer that question in two parts, if I may. I am going start with the paragraph from an op-ed piece that President Robert Kustra from Boise State University wrote, which I think illuminates the fallacy in the first part of that argument. He says, ``To take a page from recent history, in 2004 Boise State went undefeated and finished the season number 9 in the BCS, yet was excluded from a BCS bowl while number 13 Michigan and number 21 Pittsburgh qualified.'' ``In 2006, Boise State went undefeated and finished the season ranked number 8, was invited to play, and defeated Oklahoma in one of the greatest games ever played.'' ``In 2008, Boise State went undefeated again and finished the season number 9 in the BCS, yet was passed over for a BCS bowl, while number 10 Ohio Sate, number 12 Cincinnati, and number 19 Virginia Tech were all chosen for BCS bowls.'' And I could go on with a series of other examples even from our own conference. This year, three teams were ranked more highly in our conference alone than teams that were chosen to play in a BCS bowl. So it seems to me that it is challenging to make that argument. The second thing I would say with respect to revenue distribution, it is true if a non-automatic qualifying conference team does exceptionally well, much better, necessarily better, than a number of the automatic qualifying teams, and manages to work its way in, despite all these handicaps, it does, in fact, get less because the agreement within the five non-automatically qualifying is that that revenue will be divided up. And, frankly, we oppose that. But the system set up under this agreement forced us into an arrangement where we have to share those revenues with these other schools, so we get approximately half of what a BCS conference automatic-qualifying team would get playing in the same bowl game. Senator Hatch. Chancellor Perlman, you have argued that the BCS revenue distribution is not only fair but better that it would be under any feasible alternative or system. However, last year both the PAC 10 and the Mountain West had exactly one team qualify for a BCS game. Yet the PAC 10 received nearly twice as much revenue as the Mountain West. As a result, the team that finished at the bottom of the PAC 10, which did not win a single game last year, was guaranteed before the season even started to receive more BCS revenues than the University of Utah, to pick one school, which finished the season as the only undefeated team in college football. Now, tell me how that result can be justified. Mr. Perlman. Senator, the bowls and the conferences have had relationships, and you have to think of this in the context of multiyear relationships. The alignment of the Fiesta Bowl with the Big 12 is based on the proposition that every year the Big 12 will produce at least one or two teams that are significantly highly ranked. The years when Oklahoma and Nebraska were not playing as well as they had been, we still produced a Texas or a Texas A&M or a Missouri. These relationships reflect not only the strength of a team in a conference, but the depth of strength in a conference. And those relationships were long standing before the BCS, and it was based on that that these revenue distributions are made. The fact is we know that from our conversations, negotiations with the media and others, that adding the other five conferences did not increase the revenue available through the BCS. So the revenue is distributed based on the contribution made to the value of the product. Senator Hatch. OK. Well, let me go back to President Young. The BCS proponents have claimed that the current BCS system, including the distribution of BCS revenues and the system for awarding BCS bids, is required by the marketplace. Now, is that true? Mr. Young. Well, again, I think there is little evidence that that is actually true, if you look at the data. If, for example, you look at the opportunity for bowls for the University of Utah, we were selected over teams--Cincinnati and Virginia Teach, for example--and that Sugar Bowl, in which we played, had a much, much higher viewership than the bowl in which Cincinnati and Virginia Tech played. It just is not clear to me at all where one can assert with confidence that the marketplace drives this in that particular way. I think that if you actually look as well at the period from 1982 to 1991, you see seven of the ten teams that actually were ranked as national champions were not then in automatic- qualifying conferences and were put in, in part, as Commissioner Swafford said, in order to bring in the teams that had been playing for the National Championship and designed to solidify and create that certainty. And so one could argue that these teams have these relationships and, therefore, the finances follow. Or, conversely, the bringing of the teams into it has generated the money itself, and the current practice that excludes 51 of the teams in college football from having a realistic opportunity to prove themselves on the field in that way, it seems to me to belies the notion that this is market-driven. Senator Hatch. Chancellor Perlman--and then I am going to turn to Senator Schumer--you have argued that the marketplace that the six preferred conferences receive automatic bids due to their prominence in college football and to preexisting bowl tie-ins. Now, does that apply to every one of the privileged conferences? For example, let me give you an example. The Big East has no bowl agreement and in recent years have been outperformed on the field by outside teams in conferences. Now, what is the market justification for including the Big East and excluding the Mountain West? In addition, last year, two non-privileged teams qualified for BCS games, but only one was invited due to the BCS rules. What is the market justification for excluding eligible teams even when they could have been invited without affecting the automatic bids of any privileged conferences? Mr. Perlman. Senator, when the BCS was formed, the Big East conference did, in fact, produce a number of national champions and teams that played with national champions. When we revised the BCS system in 2003 and 2004, we created a pathway for conferences who were not automatic qualifiers to become automatic qualifier based on the strength and depth of the conference on the field. The Big East went through that process and was successful. That process is open to the other five conferences as well. So we did try and create a mechanism whereby conferences, through the strength and depth of their success on the field could become automatic qualifiers in the Bowl Championship Series. Senator Hatch. Well, tell us about the specifics of that criterion because that has not been made public to my knowledge. Mr. Perlman. Well, Senator, it was part of the agreement of the group of five that all of them agreed to when we revised the system in 2003-04. I am not sure that I can give you the details without referring back to the contract, and I do not know if Mr. Monts remembers them as well. But there is a process, and it is one that has objective criteria for meeting that process. Mr. Monts. Senator, may I add to that? Senator Hatch. Certainly. Mr. Monts. There is a process. It relates to three different criteria: first is the ranking of the highest ranked team in the conference; second is the number of teams ranked in the top 25 of the final BCS standings; and then the third is the strength of the conference measured by the ratings of all of its teams from top to bottom. The standards work over a 4-year period. The 4-year period began in 2004 and went through 2007. There was a new period that began last year, will run through the 2011 regular season. And so based on those standards, we are in the new period, and certainly any conference that triggers them that does not now have an automatic berth will earn one. Senator Hatch. Have those criteria been made public, the four you mentioned here? Mr. Monts. I do not know if they have been made public, Senator. They are part and parcel of the BCS agreement. Senator Hatch. OK. Let me go back to you, Chancellor Perlman. One of the arguments made in defense of the BCS specifically with regard to the National Championship game is that it is objectively open to every team regardless of their conference affiliation. Now, put simply, if the team is ranked No. 1 or two, it will not play in the National Championship no matter what conference it hails from. However, as a practical matter, while this standard is theoretically objective, it eliminates most teams from consideration before the season even begins. Isn't that correct? Or, in your opinion, does every team begin the season with the possibility of playing in the National Championship game? Mr. Perlman. Senator, I can say certainly that the system allows every team an equal right to be No. 1 or No. 2 if they are successful on the field. I am not so naive as to think that, as a practical matter, some schools do not have, because of tradition, because of reputation, a better chance at it. It is the same as when Nebraska walks into NIH and seeks a Federal grant and we are competing against Harvard. Theoretically, we have the same opportunity. Do we as a realistic matter? I am not sure. But I do believe that--I mean, the problem is, of course, that we do not all play each other, and there is no conceivable way that we could play each other. And so a team that may be undefeated may not have played the same strength of schedule, may not have interacted with a sufficient number of teams to solicit a ranking of one or two from those people that look at the system and try and pick the No. 1 or No. 2 teams. Senator Hatch. President Young, do you care to comment about that? Mr. Young. Well, I think the key point--and I wanted to emphasize and appreciate Chancellor Perlman's emphasis of the key point--is that the system is entirely self-referential and so that you have at least as one of the major data---- Senator Hatch. Self what, now? Mr. Young. Self-referential. That is to say, it starts with a series of rankings, rankings based on a great deal of polling data--much of it by people who confessed this year that they have never seen a single Mountain West team play this year--and create a ranking system, and from that ranking system, then, however you perform on the field, whatever the strength of your schedule, climbing up that ranking becomes, at least to point one or two, virtually impossible. Coupled with the dialogic way of discussing BCS versus non-BCS, it makes it very difficult for any team in a process that is based in some large degree on popularity polling and on historic patterns rather than actual on-field performance to be ranked one or two. It is simply not realistic. Senator Hatch. Well, do you think that a team from an outside, non-privileged conference has a realistic chance to qualify for a National Championship game? Mr. Young. Well, Senator Hatch, the University of Utah comes from the conference that this year had the best interconference record. Against the PAC 10 we were 6-1, and we were undefeated and unable to climb that ranking. I do not know what more we could do. We have worked hard; we have hired gifted coaches; we have invested heavily in our program. We have worked diligently by dint of tremendous sweat and labor and after a year like that could not rise. Senator Hatch. Well, let me just rephrase it in another way for both you and Chancellor Perlman. Let us take last year's Utah team, for example. What more could they have done to play their way into a National Championship game? You know, if the BCS system ensures that most teams will not even have an outside chance of playing for the National Championship, isn't it fair to say that it is exclusionary? Mr. Young. Well, if we had been part of an automatic- qualifying conference, I suspect we would have had an opportunity to play for a championship. Senator Hatch. I see. Chancellor. Mr. Perlman. Senator, it is hard to respond to this without appearing to be disrespectful of Utah, which I am not. Senator Hatch. You do not want to be in this room. [Laughter.] Mr. Perlman. I know. I know. Senator Hatch. I happen to love the University of Nebraska, too. We have watched it for years, and your former coach was a good Member of Congress, and he is back with you, as I understand it. Mr. Perlman. He is. Senator Hatch. Well, that is going to do a lot of good, I think. Mr. Perlman. It will. Senator Hatch. And you have been very kind to come here and give us your viewpoint. Mr. Perlman. Well, I just want to say--I mean, there is realistically something that Utah could do. They could have played the schedule Nebraska played last year, where we played Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and Missouri--all of them ranked within the top five. Senator Hatch. Did they even have a chance to do that? Mr. Perlman. Well, they got a non-conference schedule that they could fill. Senator Hatch. Well, they played a lot of big-time teams last year. Mr. Perlman. I know, but the issue is---- Senator Hatch. And they whipped one team that was No. 1 for most of the season. Mr. Perlman. And if they had have beaten Alabama before that bowl game instead of at that bowl game, they might have had a better shot at it. Senator Hatch. Well, I see. You are making my case for me. Mr. Perlman. You know, at some point--at some point-- regardless of what system you talk about, somebody is going to have to pick the teams that play and the teams that are excluded. Senator Hatch. Is it fair to pick teams when you do not even go and see--when the criteria does not require you to even go and see a game? And let us use the Mountain West Conference as a perfect illustration. Mr. Perlman. I appreciate that it may seem unfair and it may, in fact, be unfair. Senator Hatch. Well, you know it is unfair. Mr. Perlman. But the fact is that somebody, no matter what system is proposed, is going to have to pick those teams that get to play and those teams that do not. And we have looked at every system possible. And you can look at the March Madness basketball, NCAA, where we have 64 teams, and we have a small committee locked in a room over that last weekend to pick the teams. And there is controversy every year about who is in and who is out. And it may be based on---- Senator Hatch. It is based on a playoff game, you know. Mr. Perlman. Well, you do, but the issue is the same. College baseball this year picked the 64 teams to play in the regionals, and there is enormous controversy about how many of the Big 12 got in as opposed to how many the ACC or the SEC got in. There is no perfect system in this. And do some of us start out with a disadvantage? As I say, Nebraska has advantages and it has disadvantages in all of the areas that this university competes with other universities. That is the way the world is, I am afraid. Senator Hatch. President Young, do you have anything to say about that? Mr. Young. Well, I appreciate those comments very much, and I do appreciate the tremendous football team that Nebraska fields and wish that they were willing to play us. If you look at the ranked teams in the top 20 that we played---- Senator Hatch. There you have a challenge. Now, let us get this---- [Laughter.] Mr. Perlman. I will report to Athletic Director Osborne when I get back. Senator Hatch. You tell Osborne I want a University of Utah game. Mr. Perlman. All right. Mr. Young. I have heard that before. We really appreciate that and the tremendous programs that those are. But given the rankings of the teams that we played--again, it gets very hard to figure out what we do in a system that inherently stacks it against us, and that I think becomes the most fundamental concern. We are not concerned about external constraints placed on our system. I envy Nebraska's athletic budget, and they produce tremendous success because of it. My athletic budget is less, but we Westerners do more with less, and those kinds of constraints are ones we understand. It is the systemic constraints where the system starts systemically balanced and structured against the possibilities that are the problem--the man-made constraints, not those constraints that come because of weather and mountains and my capacity to fundraise or not fundraise. Senator Hatch. President Young, I wanted to ask you about the message the current BCS system sends to our young people. As you know, a group of colleges and universities are the primary movers behind the current system. It is these same institutions that we charge with the task of educating our young people and preparing them for the workforce. What impact, if any, does the BCS have on your efforts to teach students the proper values? Mr. Young. Senator, if I may take the liberty of reading two things that encapsulate it a bit? Senator Hatch. Sure. Mr. Young. One comes from my written testimony, and it just focuses on the fact that I believe, as I believe most Presidents believe, that we have a paramount responsibility to teach our students to be good citizens, to model fairness and equity and to lead by example. This is true in all aspects of university life, but particularly true for college football, which creates such great interest and enthusiasm and attention among our student body. College sports should promote fairness and equity and the fundamental American concept that anyone with the skills and drive to succeed can achieve the highest level of greatness. These are not the messages being sent by college football today. The BCS system, with its stranglehold on college football, sends the message that economic power rather than athletic ability is the key to success. As Commissioner Swafford said, ``Fairness depends on where you sit.'' Rather than promoting fairness and equity, the BCS system promotes the status quo--a system of schools who have and those who have not--and virtually assures that many highly successful athletic programs will be forever excluded from the highest levels of recognition and financial gain. And these are not values that we want our students to really model or emulate. I will read one last statement, if I may, which I think is beautifully written, that highlights our obligation, and it comes from David Frohnmayer, President of Oregon State University, who says, ``We can easily go too far--authority is seductive; we can reach a personal tipping point. . . .Some environments blind us to the human consequences of our actions--so we MUST be attuned to the consequences of our behavior. . . .This ethical life is hard work--``knowing right from wrong'' requires diligence, self-scrutiny and looking into a very well-lit and refractive mirror.'' And, of course, President Frohnmayer is the most recently retired Chair of the BCS. I agree wholeheartedly with his statement and what we ought to be teaching our students, and I do not believe that the BCS does that. Senator Hatch. Thank you. Chancellor Perlman, our State universities were created so each student would have an opportunity to attend college. Now, getting an education has increasingly become a prerequisite to achieve the American dream, which says if you work hard enough, you too can be a success and enjoy the fruits of your labor. But under the BCS system, it does not matter how good of a team you are. In the BCS system, there are significant and largely insurmountable obstacles at play in the so-called National Championship. Now, if your school does not belong to a privileged conference, that becomes even harder. Therefore, does not the BCS system violate the intellectual and ideological foundation which was the basis for the creation of State universities? Mr. Perlman. Well, Senator, of course, it is always--it depends on your perspectives on these matters. As I tried to indicate in my testimony, both written and oral, universities come with a set of endowments, some of them that they have earned, some of them that they acquired through luck. We are all different. It seems to me that one of the things that universities ought to teach students is the fact that, however the natural set of endowments are arrayed against you, hard work and creative activity can cause you to rise to the top. Bowl Championship Series gives every school an opportunity to play for the National Championship. It has increased the access of students and schools that did not have it before. It has increased the revenue of schools that have aspirations for playing at the highest level of college football. I do agree that the issue is one about students, and if you would permit me to also provide you a quote, it is from Gary Patterson, football coach at TSU, which I believe is a member of the Mountain West Conference: ``Obviously, a true playoff gives you a national champion. But my answer has always been it's for the kids. And bowl games are for the kids. If you're in the playoff, you spend all week at your place, and if you get beat, you're done. You never experience a new place; you never see new things. For me, the key to the bowl games is you get to experience another place; you get to learn about another program. A lot of our kids never get to go to the West Coast. In all this arguing, we tend to forget about the kids, about their academic load and everything else that comes with being a student-athlete. I have a tendency to stick with the bowls.'' I think that is the attitude in most of the university presidents I come in contact with. Senator Hatch. Well, let me go back to President Young. Both Chancellor Perlman and Mr. Monts, in his testimony, in his written testimony, have stated that the BCS is needed to protect the overall bowl system and to preserve the exciting nature of the regular season. Now, in the past, proponents of the BCS have also argued that any playoff proposal would harm the schools' academic missions. Do you agree with any of those claims? Mr. Young. Not a single one of them, as it turns out. If you actually look at the regular season, I think March Madness in basketball certainly created a lot of excitement in a particular of period of time. But, in fact, because selection into March Madness depends in some large measure on performance on the court during the regular season, in fact, there is some substantial evidence that TV revenues for the regular season have actually gone up, not down, as has attendance as well. I think in addition, if you look at the regular season at the moment, given the way the system is structured, there are comparatively few games that have actual National Championship implications. I included this in my written testimony. If you go to a system, even a modified playoff system like ours--as we have suggested from the Mountain West--and I am not in any way, as I do not think the conference is, wedded to that particular system but simply trying to show there are alternatives that achieve all the objectives without engaging in harm. If you look at that system, it basically would extend the season by a week for two teams, and that hardly seems problematic, particularly given what Division II and Division III do in terms of their playoffs, where it is extended by 21 to 29 days, respectively. Eighty-eight NCAA sports, and only one without a playoff. My suspicion is if I were to ask any one of the students from any one of the non-BCS automatic qualifying conferences, ``Would you like to go to the West Coast and go to a party, or would you like to actually compete for the National Championship? '' I doubt there is little disagreement among the 2,000 athletes who are currently largely precluded from participating in that. And, finally, with respect to destroying the bowls, in fact, since the BCS system has been created, there has been an addition of a number of bowls. The revenue for the existing bowls has actually gone up. There is very little evidence that that has harmed the bowl system. In fact, it appears by all evidence to have increased the number of bowls, enthusiasm for bowls, revenue for bowls in the United States as well. I think that is unarguable. Senator Hatch. I am going to get to you antitrust lawyers, so do not worry. I know President Young has to leave by 4, and I am trying to cover as much as I can with these two great presidents. Let me go to you again, Chancellor Perlman. Do you care to respond to that? It seems to me that the bowls outside the BCS exist on a completely separate plane and would not be affected by the establishment of a playoff. Also, under the current system, most teams are eliminated from National Championship consideration if they lose a single game, and their games fall off the national radar after that loss occurs. Now, wouldn't the establishment of a playoff mean that more regular season games have championship implications because teams would remain in contention even after they have suffered a loss? Mr. Perlman. Senator, I think with respect to the impact on the bowl games, I think in at least all of the proposals I have seen for a playoff, it would be inconceivable how that would work and still retain the bowl system as we know it. You cannot run--I do not think you can run Nebraska in the Rose Bowl 1 week and if we win we go to Orlando the next week, and if we win that we go to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas and play for the National Championship. I do not think our fans are going to travel that much in December and January. I do not think they can afford to travel that much, which means that those teams will then be playing on their home fields. That withdraws a number of teams from the bowl system that currently are playing in bowls, and we can right now barely fill out the bowls that we have. I do not think you can think it will not have a diminished impact on the bowls across the country if we went to a playoff system. Senator Hatch. President Young, we will end with you and let you catch your airplane. Mr. Young. From 1999 to 2009, it increased from 23 to 34 bowls. The March Madness actually has increased the number of basketball tournaments around the country by a substantial margin, not decreased it. It is possible everybody will say these bowls, while they have been great for the thousand sponsors of these bowls--and it is about a thousand sponsors--will say, What were we thinking? This has not been good for the economy of our city. These teams that otherwise are not in this playoff system, we do not want to see them play; we do not want to have them; they are second and third in their conferences, so we are just going to cancel the bowl because there is now a playoff system. It is possible. But it strikes me as enormously unlikely. Possible, but I would be stunned if that is what happened. Senator Hatch. Well, thank you. You need to catch a plane. But, you know, there are some university presidents who would not want to testify in this hearing. Do you understand why? Mr. Young. I do not, really, and I will tell you why I do not: because this is part of a broad dialog. I have enormous confidence in my fellow presidents and chancellors that they understand that open, honest disagreement is the stuff of which great systems and great countries and great universities are made. If the notion is that somehow the University of Utah will be viewed badly because we aired these concerns, it strikes me as entirely implausible. I have the utmost respect for my fellow presidents, their athletic directors. I cannot imagine that they would stand back and say we are not going to schedule Utah. In fact, I think I just got an agreement we were going to be scheduled. Senator Hatch. All right, Perlman. I want to see this---- [Laughter.] Mr. Young. So I appreciate that, Senator, but I think the great gift to America is higher education, and, for those who stand at the top of those institutions, I have enormous respect. I cannot imagine that these respectful disagreements on these issues will do anything other than deepen our collaboration, cooperation, and camaraderie. Senator Hatch. Well, thank you. Mr. Perlman. Senator, if I might just be permitted, I want to indicate the same thing. This is a conversation that has been going on for a long time. Any conversation depends on the perspective you have. It will not in any way diminish our respect for presidents that testify from a different perspective. The universities around this country have an enormous range of relationships. Intercollegiate football is just one. And, frankly, I do not think it is the most important one, and I think we engage collaboratively in a wide variety of areas for the good of the country, and I am sure that will continue regardless of what position is taken with respect to post- season football. Senator Hatch. Well, thank you. I expect that to be the case. I appreciate both of you being here. You need to catch your plane, and I would be happy to let you go at this time. Mr. Young. Thank you, Senator. I would be deeply grateful. I have a son getting married, and if I miss his wedding, I just have a feeling he will be very huffy. [Laughter.] Mr. Young. So I very much appreciate your indulgence. Thank you so much, and thank you for the privilege of testifying and for the opportunity to be with this enormously distinguished panel. Senator Hatch. I just want to tell everybody what a great university president you are. You are a terrific human being, and you have got a terrific intellectual background as well, which is always nice to see in a university president. Mr. Young. Will that be in the record, Senator? [Laughter.] Senator Hatch. It is on the record. We will send it to you. All right. Now, let me go to Mr. Monts, and we will excuse you, President Young. We appreciate your efforts in being here, especially with the family problems. Mr. Monts, in your written testimony, you purposefully limit your antitrust analysis to only a discussion of Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. However, I believe that an analysis of both Sections 1 and 2 is required to fully appreciate and understand the legal arguments for modifying the BCS system. Now, how can one argue the BCS system does not violate Section 2? And let me just add one other thing. The Supreme Court in U.S. v. Grinnell lays out a two-part test for determining if a Section 2 violation has occurred. The first prong of the test asks if there is a monopoly power in the relevant market. Well, does not the BCS exclude competition by limiting the number of non-privileged conference teams which can qualify for the BCS bowl? And regarding the question of relevant markets, who would argue the vast sums expended to acquire the exclusive television rights for broadcast of the BCS bowls and the National Championship game is not evidence of distinct markets? Now, the second part of the Grinnell test, if the willful acquisition or maintenance of that power is distinguished from growth or development as a consequence of a superior product, business acumen, or historic accident, now here, again, I believe the Supreme Court's criteria is met. Has not the BCS acquired and maintained its monopoly power by limiting the participation of non-privileged conferences in the management of the BCS structure? And does the BCS not limit the five non- privileged conferences collectively to a single vote, whereas the privileged conferences get one vote each? Now, how can you say that Section 2 is not violated under those circumstances? I asked a number of questions there, and I would be happy to repeat them if---- Mr. Monts. I may need you to unpack them again for me, Senator, but I will address those, because I think the first question or the question you raised about the question of governance is not really an antitrust issue at all. There is a BCS Presidential Oversight Committee. That committee was created with the agreement of all conferences, all 11 conferences and the University of Notre Dame. At the time it was created, that was a request that was made by those five conferences to have one seat on that committee, and that was agreed to. Senator Hatch. I understand that if the University of Notre Dame finishes eighth or better, it will qualify for one of the---- Mr. Monts. If the University of Notre Dame finishes eighth in the Nation or better, it in that season will earn an automatic berth in a BCS bowl game. Senator Hatch. That is my understanding. Mr. Monts. Just as if a team in one of the five other conferences finishes 12th or better, a champion finishes 12th or better, or 16th and higher than one of the champions from the annual automatic qualifying conferences, it, too, will earn an annual automatic berth. Senator Hatch. Right. Mr. Monts. Now, I think the way to look at this, Senator, is to look at it in comparison to what we would have without the BCS, and this is where I think the antitrust argument falls flat, and it is this: Without the BCS, we would simply be back in the old bowl system in which each conference makes its own bowl arrangements. That is what we had for many, many years prior to 1991 with the formation of the Bowl Coalition and what we would return to if the BCS went away. We would have each conference negotiating for the best bowl deal it could arrange for its champion and for its runner-up teams, just as we have today. Senator Hatch. Not if you have a playoff system. Mr. Monts. No court is going to write that, Senator. None whatsoever. That is not what courts do. Senator Hatch. There are some that would. [Laughter.] Senator Hatch. I can even name the judges. Mr. Monts. But no court has the authority, in my view, under the antitrust laws, and it would be extraordinary, in my view, because the BCS is a form of cooperation today if we assume a Section 1 agreement. Now, what we are asking, what is being asked of the court is to enjoin the BCS and then replace it with another form of cooperation. That is not what the antitrust laws do. Courts do not sit there and serve as super-regulatory bodies or public utility commissions to deal with post-season college football or any other---- Senator Hatch. No, but they can decide what is right and wrong. Mr. Monts. Pardon? Senator Hatch. They can decide what is right and wrong. Mr. Monts. Certainly, Senator. They will decide---- Senator Hatch. Once they do that, then you have to comply. Mr. Monts. But the remedy that would be issued by a court is simply an injunction against the BCS agreement, and then each conference would be on its own in terms of negotiating its bowl arrangements. That is essentially what happened with the NCAA v. Board of Regents case. The Supreme Court issued a decision, the NCAA television agreement was enjoined, and each conference is now selling its own regular season television rights individually. The same thing would happen with the BCS if it were to go away. Senator Hatch. Mr. Brett, do you agree with that? Mr. Brett. No, I do not, Senator Hatch. Senator Hatch. Would you hit your button there? Mr. Brett. I am sorry. I do not. The fact is that in all the years that I have been practicing--and it is, unfortunately, a lot longer than Mr. Monts. In fact, I was in the Grinnell cases way back when. And I know how in each one of those cases and in every monopoly case the defendant will invariably claim that this is the only way to do it, we must do it, this is the best system, and we are doing something good. It is unheard of, in antitrust parlance, for a group of competing entities to form their own cartel, set up a series of rules, and say this is the best way to do it, therefore, allow us to do it. We have abundant evidence that their claim that this is the best system and the only system is a flawed premise. In fact, there are 88 playoffs run by the NCAA. It is very curious that in the most lucrative of sports, the NCAA has stepped out of the picture and allowed this separate cartel to function. The NCAA has rules operative in the basketball program which require that all teams involved that are invited, participate and play within that structure. A structure administered by the NCAA, for example, could very easily adopt a playoff system and implement a playoff system. The suggestion that this is the best or the only way to do it is not a decision that should be made by a group of competitors by agreement in a manner which excludes competing companies and excludes others who are not involved. The data as to the impact of this system is abundant. The data to show the discriminatory and anticompetitive effects is abundant. The impact on the public, which is the primary concern of the antitrust laws, is dramatic. There can be little doubt that if there were a playoff system or some free competition, every school in the country would want to participate. Can one imagine USC and Texas, which were so indignant at not having the opportunity to compete for the National Championship last year, saying that they would not want to participate in that competition? And we would have all liked to see those games, see USC, see Texas in there. Their system is one that does not make sense, but it just simply follows the practice of every monopolist of saying we have to do it. Those arguments were made by the NCAA in the Board of Regents case. They were made more recently in a case where they tried to limit the compensation given to coaches. And, again, in all those circumstances the courts evaluated and rejected the arguments of the NCAA that, ``Our way is the best way and the only way to do it.'' The evidence does not support it, and the fact that they can do 88 playoffs in other sports suggests that there is no reason that it cannot be and should not be done in this sport as well. Senator Hatch. In your testimony, Mr. Brett, you argue the BCS violates Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. In his written testimony to the Committee, Mr. Paul Kaplan of our very important law firm down here, one of the important firms, Arent Fox, agrees with your analysis that there is a Section 1 violation. However, Mr. Kaplan argues the BCS construct should be evaluated under a per se rule. Now, he argues the BCS system is an illegal horizontal constraint. On the other hand, you argue for a rule-of-reason analysis, as I understand it. Why do you believe the Subcommittee should evaluate the BCS system using the rule of reason? And if we use the per se rule, do we reach a different conclusion? In addition, do you believe the BCS system violates the rule of reason? Mr. Brett. I do believe it violates the rule of reason. I think that there are certainly indicia of the BCS system which reflect areas to which the per se rules apply. Certainly there is an absence of price competition with respect to bowl games, bowl televising of games, and they are sold as a package. Those are certainly areas of practice which could be subject to per se consideration. We in our submission took a more conservative view of saying that we do not have to deal with the per se rules which the Supreme Court has sought to narrow, which were not applied in the Board of Regents case and the more recent law case; so that without dealing with that controversial proposition, we think it is very clear under the rule of reason that it is a violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, and we think it is also very clear that it is a very, very obvious violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act; that there is absolutely no doubt that this monopoly was illegally acquired and maintained and it continues to be maintained by exclusionary conduct. The relevant market is easy. The monopoly power is manifest. And I do not know even know what the arguments are that would be advanced in defense. Senator Hatch. Well, so would it not be safe to say that a reasonable case can be made under both the per se and rule-of- reason analysis that there is a violation here? Mr. Brett. Absolutely. Senator Hatch. If you have a---- Mr. Monts. I do, Senator, because I do not think there is any credible case to be made on the per se rule. There would be no BCS without an agreement, and there would be no other alternative system without an agreement among the conferences and the participants. In fact, the only way that we can have any kind of post- season structure of any sort, no matter how it is structured, is through an agreement of the parties. So the suggestion that there is a per se violation in any way here strikes me as simply flatly wrong. In terms of the rule of reason, the question in antitrust is output, and there is no game that I am aware of that is not played; there is no conference that is not playing--no team that is not playing the maximum number of games it is entitled to play under NCAA rules. The fact of the matter is there is just no output restriction here whatsoever, and that being the case, there is no violation at all. Senator Hatch. Mr. Brett. Mr. Brett. There is certainly restraint on output. If there were a playoff system as proposed by the Mountain West, for example, there would clearly be two or three additional games played each year, and one can imagine the revenues that would be generated by games that would have that kind of imprimatur of a genuine National Championship. If they are paying half a billion dollars for these games, imagine what they would pay for the Super Bowl of college football. So that there is a restraint on output. There are less anticompetitive restrictions or restraints on matters in which the same results can be achieved, and those have to be considered. And not only is there a restraint on output, there are exclusionary rules adopted by this self-designated group, with no portfolio and no authority such as the NCAA or any other group would have. They designated themselves as the arbiters of what is necessary to create a system where they get 87 percent of the revenues. That is just directly contrary to the spirit and objectives of the Sherman Act. Senator Hatch. Let me ask both Mr. Monts and Chancellor Perlman, if you care to comment, Chancellor. Many have argued that a playoff system would mean more money not only for the privileged BCS conferences but for all the schools in the country. I have to assume that television networks, advertisers, and sponsors would welcome some sort of a playoff system if for no other reason than it would mean a few more games. Now, wouldn't that be the case? Wouldn't the playoff system mean more money for everybody? Mr. Perlman. It might, Senator, but I do not think you can be assured of that. If we are right that the value of the regular season would decline with a broader playoff, then it is not clear the total amount of money would be the same. But as a university president sitting between two antitrust lawyers, I would just comment that I think university presidents that I talk to are legitimately concerned about the number of games that you can ask student athletes to play under these circumstances and at this level, not only for the health of student athletes but for their academic success. These athletes are strong, they are fast, and they get beat up in these games. And I think that there are limits to how many they would play, and I guess I would argue that at least that output restraint would have some basis in reason. Senator Hatch. OK. Mr. Monts. Mr. Monts. I certainly agree with Chancellor Perlman, but the question is the overall revenues from all of college football, regular season and post-season. I part company with Mr. Brett, I think, on a couple of avenues. The argument that output is restricted because if we had a playoff there would be more games is a little bit like saying, well, we would have more games if the National Football League extended its season to 18 games or 20 games rather than the current 16; or we would have more output if the NCAA did not limit regular season games to 12--or 13 for those who travel to Hawaii--but had 15 or 16. There must be some limit on that, and so no matter what the structure is, one could always hypothesize a different format that would come up with more games. The difficulty, I think, again, Senator, is going back to what would we have if there were an antitrust injunction entered against the BCS, and the answer is we would have each conference selling its own bowl rights individually, and the only way we could have any kind of structure that would create any sort of National Championship playoff or any alternative structure to the BCS would be through some other agreement of those conferences and Notre Dame. This is the agreement that the conferences and Notre Dame can reach. To have a National Championship requires the participation of each and every one. Now, several conferences have alternatives. For example, the Big 10 and PAC 10 have played for many, many years in the Rose Bowl, going back to January 1, 1947. Those conferences have that alternative, and if they wish to simply go back to the Rose Bowl and not participate in the playoff, that will be their prerogative, and there will not be a National Championship structure. It will be very difficult to go to any sort of television network or even to the public at large and say, ``We are going to have a National Championship arrangement, but we will not have USC, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State''--or many other fine teams. The same thing would be true if the Big 12 or the Southeastern Conference decided for whatever reason it wanted to continue individually its own bowl arrangement with its historic bowl partners. So the only way are going to have a championship is by the participation of all conferences. Now, let me address one other point that Mr. Brett made, because I think it actually makes my point rather than his, and that is, the NCAA's rule requiring mandatory participation in the Men's Basketball Championship. That rule was tested in the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association v. NCAA case in New York. MIBA was the former operator of the NIT, the National Invitational Tournament, which was a competitive post- season tournament with the Men's Basketball Championship. The specific challenges that MIBA raised in that case were to the mandatory participation rule and to the one-post-season- tournament rule that the NCAA had imposed. Now, MIBA survived a motion for summary judgment, meaning that the NCAA was going to have to try that case and at the risk of losing its mandatory participation rule, which is crucial to the playoff. So it settled it for $57 million. Now, the bowls would be in the exact same position today as the NIT if there were a playoff and they were deprived of teams. They would be deprived of the ability to compete for teams. That litigation playbook, I think, has been written, and I believe it cuts far more in favor of our position than it does Mr. Brett's. So we must respectfully disagree on that point. Senator Hatch. Mr. Brett, do you have any comments? Mr. Brett. Well, first, I am quite familiar with Judge Cedarbaum's decision in the MIBA case, and it was not settled for $57 million. The NCAA bought the National Invitation Tournament, so there was no payment made and there was certainly no adjudication that the rule we referred to was incorrect. But I think more fundamentally, Senator, the real problem here is that what we have before us at the BCS now is a group of competitors who have formed a cartel which has worked out to their great advantage. They have managed to secure for themselves 87 percent of the revenues and 90 of the 94 spots in the major bowls. And now they come in and tell us you must allow us to make the decision as to how these revenues are distributed, how these people are selected for the bowls, because we know the best way to do it. The fact that it works out to our great economic advantage is almost coincidental, but trust us, trust us to make the best decisions. That is directly contrary to what the Sherman Act requires, and it is directly contrary to the jurisprudence under antitrust law, where every single case will see a defendant coming in and saying, ``What we did was good and wholesome. We really did not mean to do anything harmful.'' And the NCAA has lost again and again in asserting that its views as to the way to restrict competition were essential. The law is that competition, and not a group of self- designated competitors who should be competing, makes the rules. And it is not coincidental that the rules which they make, when we look back at their effect, have been dramatically in favor of those six conferences. And antitrust jurisprudence is to look for anticompetitive effects, and these effects have been dramatically and offensively anticompetitive. Senator Hatch. Well, let me just say, this has been a very interesting hearing for me, and you all have been excellent witnesses. I have to say I am having a lot of troubles with the BCS approach because, you know, Mr. Thompson comes up with some ideas, and maybe they were not what the BCS wanted, but they just kind of dismissed it without argument. And there is kind of an arrogance there that I see that just should not be there. And you know who I am talking about, too, and you are not it. But the fact of the matter is that I am really concerned about it because I think it is really the wrong example for our young people, and it is certainly not working well. And I do believe--I hate to say it to you, Mr. Monts. You have been very loquacious, and you are undoubtedly a good attorney. But I believe there are real antitrust issues here that are not going to be solved unless the folks at BCS start to work to resolve these matters. And, Mr. Perlman, I know a lot about you. You are a very fine man and a very good university administrator. I want you to go back and argue with these people and let them know that, hey, we are sick of it, to be honest with you. And I think Mr. Brett has made a pretty darn good case here today. Did you have something you wanted to say? I do not want to cut you off. Mr. Perlman. I am sorry. I just wanted to clarify the record. Senator Hatch. Sure. Mr. Perlman. The BCS agreement that will start in 2011 was agreed to by all the conferences in November of 2008. The Mountain West proposals were brought to us after we had reached that agreement, and it was the position of the ten conferences that we would honor our commitments to ESPN and not review the Mountain West proposals at that time. But they have not been summarily rejected and, indeed, what we have stated publicly is that when the next BCS agreement is negotiated, we will consider the proposals of the Mountain West as well as any other proposals for changing the Bowl Championship Series to make it better. Senator Hatch. That is a long time away. Mr. Perlman. Well, it is actually not as long as you might think, because we start renegotiating the agreement about a year into whatever agreement we have. It is not immediate, but the fact is that all ten conferences have made a commitment to the current system, and we have signed an agreement to that effect with ESPN. And all of us thought that we did not want to upset that agreement and we thought we ought to honor our promises. Senator Hatch. Mr. Brett, do you have any comment about that? Mr. Brett. There is right now a July 9 deadline for the signing of the agreement. Counsel for the Mountain West has requested that that deadline be extended to allow everyone to digest and take into account these proceedings and other events which are now going on. The ESPN agreement contemplates that it would be revised if the current system has to be upset for any reason, and it contemplates the possibility of it being upset for antitrust violations implicitly. There is no reason that that deadline cannot be lifted and there be given time for everyone to work out a more equitable system that does not violate the antitrust laws. Unfortunately, as history teaches us, one of the great evils of monopoly power is the arrogance and the willingness to move ahead and exercise that power. And that is what happens when you have a monopolist. Mr. Perlman and his colleagues are fine people, and I have been very impressed and very privileged to sit with him here today and hear his views. But they have gotten themselves into a situation where they have made so much money, they have got an economic interest that they want to keep, and it is being protected by a group of competing companies that have avoided competition. It is time that that stopped, and I think your observations were appropriate. There is no reason that contract has to be signed now. Senator Hatch. Well, thank you. I want to thank all three of you, and certainly President Young as well, for being here. This has been one of the most interesting hearings to me that we have had around here in a long time, and it is great to have great witnesses who could testify. So I appreciate your being here. You have not changed my viewpoint. In fact, it is reinforced, and in all honesty, I am very, very concerned about it as a Pitt graduate, you know, the law school. All I can say is that this has been an informative hearing, and I am grateful for the four of you for taking your time to be with us today. With that, I am going to have to end the hearing. Thanks so much. Mr. Brett. Senator Hatch, thank you, and thank you for allowing us to participate in this great exercise in democracy not available anywhere else. We appreciate the opportunity and the privilege. Mr. Monts. Senator, it has been an honor. Thank you very much. Senator Hatch. An honor for us. Thanks so much. 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