[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2102-2103]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 CONGRATULATING THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the recent 
college football season and the success enjoyed by our own University 
of Utah football team.
  First, I want to mention that a while back, during last week's 
festivities, I had the opportunity to meet with members of the 
University of Utah Marching Band as they were in town to march and 
perform in the inauguration parade.
  I want to publicly recognize the members of the Church of Jesus 
Christ of Latter Day Saints in Ashburn, VA, who offered their homes to 
these musicians and the band, allowing them the once-in-a-lifetime 
opportunity to perform for the President of the United States of 
America. The band would not have been able to make it to Washington had 
it not been for the generosity of these private citizens who housed 
them and took care of them and fed them. I appreciate their willingness 
to help some of my follow Utahns.
  My meeting with the band out in Ashburn reminded me of what a 
wonderful year it has been for sports fans in my State. I wish to once 
again publicly extend my congratulations to the Utah Utes on an 
outstanding season.
  On January 2, the Utes capped an undefeated season with a 31-to-17 
victory in the Sugar Bowl over a highly favored Alabama team. Under the 
scrutiny of the national spotlight, Utah played with poise and 
precision, silencing the naysayers who claimed they could not compete 
with a national powerhouse such as Alabama.
  Alabama had been rated No. 1 much of the season. This was Utah's 
second undefeated season in 5 years, demonstrating that school's 
football team deserves to be considered among the country's elite 
college football programs.
  In particular, I want to congratulate Coach Kyle Whittingham, who, on 
January 13, was named National Coach of the Year by the American 
Football Coaches Association. What an honor. Coach Whittingham took 
over the head coaching job at Utah 4 years ago, following what was, at 
that time, the most successful season in school history. The 
Whittingham family is sort of a football institution in the State of 
Utah. So fans and alumni had high expectations about the future of the 
program, and Coach Whittingham has not disappointed them. In each of 
his four seasons, the Utes have finished with a winning record and have 
won a bowl game. In fact, the University of Utah has won a bowl game in 
six consecutive seasons and, overall, they have been victorious in 
their last eight bowl appearances--the longest current streak in 
college football. Coach Whittingham has been on the staff that entire 
time, first as defensive coordinator and now as the head coach.
  The Utes have been lead on the field by quarterback Brian Johnson. He 
capped an outstanding college career this past season by winning the 
Mountain West Conference's Offensive Player of the Year Award. He was 
also a finalist for numerous national quarterback awards. Brian's story 
is actually a very inspirational one. Late in the 2005 season, he 
suffered what is, in many cases, a career-ending injury when he tore 
his ACL. This injury forced him to sit out the entire 2006 season. 
Then, in the first game of the 2007 season, he was injured again and 
missed two more games. But he was able to finish the season, leading 
the Utes to a winning record and an impressive victory over Navy in the 
Poinsettia Bowl. He returned for his senior season, fully healed and 
ready to take the team on his shoulders for what proved to be a 
historic season.
  One of the most popular members of the Ute squad has been kicker and 
punter Louie Sakoda who, in each of the last three seasons, was the 
Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Year and named to several 
All-America teams. Nicknamed ``King Louie,'' this 5-foot-9, 178-pound 
team captain is something of a celebrity in Salt Lake City. Last year, 
he offered himself as a date for a campus charity auction and drew the 
highest bid of any item on sale--though NCAA restrictions kept him from 
actually going on the date. His parents, according to news stories, can 
join any pregame party in the parking lot outside Rice Eccles Stadium 
if they just mention their son's name. He has also lent his celebrity 
to an ad campaign started by Utah First Lady Mary Kaye Huntsman aimed 
at combating teenage drinking and driving. Louie can be seen in TV 
commercials in Utah urging teens and anyone who's been drinking to 
``punt the keys.''
  Indeed, the entire University of Utah football team has become the 
toast of every town in my State--even among those who typically root 
for the Utah's other fine football programs. They have also become one 
of the most talked about teams in college football nationwide.
  Unfortunately, the success enjoyed by the Utah football team has been 
marred somewhat by the controversy surrounding the Bowl Championship 
Series. The Utes were the only football team in NCAA Division I to 
finish the season 2008 undefeated. Their season included victories 
against a powerhouse team at Brigham Young University, Oregon State, 
Texas Christian University, and Alabama, all of which finished the 
season ranked in the Associated Press Top 25--the latter two in the Top 
10. In fact, Alabama spent much of the regular season ranked number one 
in the country before losing to Florida near the end of the season.
  Yet despite these accomplishments, even with its perfect record and 
impressive schedule, the University of Utah finished the season ranked 
second in the country. Florida, the team that won the so-called BCS 
Championship Game, had a very good year. But unlike Utah, they were not 
undefeated; they had one loss, as did at least three

[[Page 2103]]

other teams in the country. Yet under the BCS system, this unbeaten 
Utah team was denied an opportunity to even play for the national 
championship. One has to wonder what more Utah could have done with its 
season in order to get into the national championship game. It is 
interesting that the former Utah coach under whom Coach Whittingham 
served, Urban Meyer, had a championship team. We all admired him. He 
was a great coach at Utah and one of the greatest coaches in America 
today. Unfortunately, the answer to this question is even more 
disheartening than the question itself: nothing. The fact of the matter 
is that the Utah team was left out of the national championship 
picture, not due to any competitive shortcoming, but because the BCS 
system categorically excluded them from consideration.
  Under the BCS, the champions of six athletic conferences receive 
automatic bids to play in the five most lucrative and prestigious bowl 
games. Collectively, those six conferences include 66 of the 119 teams 
in NCAA Division I football. So, in short, nearly half of all college 
football teams begin the season virtually left out of the BCS picture, 
yet the BCS still wants to call the winner of its championship game the 
``national champion.'' I don't know about you, Mr. President, but that 
strikes me as odd.
  Of course, it needs to be acknowledged that teams from non-BCS 
conferences can play their way into a BCS game. The University of Utah 
did so both this year and in 2004. In other years, teams from Boise 
State and Hawaii have earned bids to play BCS bowl games. But in doing 
so, these teams had to overcome serious competitive disadvantages. For 
example, it is virtually impossible for a school from a non-BCS 
conference to get a BCS bid without going undefeated in the regular 
season, and even that is not a guarantee. Yet this past season, each of 
the six BCS conference champions had at least one regular season loss--
three of them had two or more. Two non-BCS teams--Utah and Boise 
State--were undefeated after the 2008 regular season. In addition, 
Texas Christian University, another non-BCS team, had only one loss and 
was higher in the BCS rankings than two of the conference champions 
with automatic berths. Yet of these three teams, only Utah was invited 
to play in a BCS game.
  These are the disadvantages non-BCS teams must face just to get into 
one of five prestigious BCS bowl games. While mere participation is an 
uphill battle, the system makes it virtually impossible for a non-BCS 
team to win the national championship. The BCS relies on a combination 
of polls and computer formulas to determine its rankings. For decades, 
these polls have almost invariably tended to favor teams from the 
bigger BCS conferences, evidenced by the fact that no team from an 
outside conference has finished a season atop a major college football 
poll since 1984. So unless a team from a non-BCS conference begins the 
season with a very high national ranking in the polls, they stand 
virtually no chance of getting ranked high enough to play in the 
championship game, even if they go undefeated. This system excludes 
teams like this year's Utah team, which began the season unranked and 
spent the season shocking opponents and exceeding expectations, from 
national championship contention.
  The flaws of the BCS system might not be so bad if it helped to clear 
what traditionally had been a muddled national championship picture. 
But unfortunately, that is not the case. In at least 6 out of the last 
10 years, there has been substantial controversy over the selection of 
the teams to play for the championship. So the system is not only 
biased, but ineffective as well.
  Mr. President, the BCS system is anti-competitive, unfair, and, in my 
opinion, un-American. I am not just saying that because my team was 
treated unfairly. I am making the case that many teams are not treated 
fairly. In no other sport in this country are champions selected by 
arbitrary and biased polls and computer ranking systems. Much worse, 
the BCS ensures that the millions of dollars paid to the participants 
of these prestigious games remain concentrated among a few elitist 
conferences. Such exclusionary practices put teams from non-BCS 
conferences at a monetary, recruiting and competitive disadvantage. 
This may not only be unfair in the normative sense, it may very well 
violate our nation's antitrust laws.
  In 1984, in NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, 
the Supreme Court determined that NCAA is not exempt from the 
requirements of the Sherman Antitrust Act. That being the case, college 
football, like most other industries in this country, must conduct 
business in a manner that does not intentionally stifle competition or 
systemically favor specified competitors. Specifically, in the words 
the Sherman Antitrust Act, no ``contract, combination, or conspiracy'' 
may be undertaken to exclude competitors.
  In my opinion, it is quite probable that the BCS violates the Sherman 
requirements. In 2003, I chaired a series of Judiciary Committee 
hearings to investigate the antitrust implications of the BCS. I stated 
at that time that I believed the BCS was anticompetitive and in dire 
need of reform. Shortly thereafter, the BCS added another bowl game 
and, to some extent, expanded the field of eligibility. However, as 
this past season demonstrates, these changes leave much to be desired 
in terms of fairness and competition. Utah Attorney General Mark 
Shurtleff shares this view and is consulting with lawyers and 
investigators to determine whether the BCS system constitutes an 
antitrust violation. Indeed, it appears that litigation over this 
matter may be on the horizon. Also, on at least two separate occasions, 
President Obama has publicly stated his concern about the fairness of 
the BCS and his hope to see the creation of a playoff system. 
Therefore, it is not unreasonable to predict that a Justice Department 
investigation into the potential antitrust violations of BCS will be 
forthcoming.
  Mr. President, I would prefer that reforms take place without putting 
the matter before the courts. In addition, given the many problems 
facing our nation, I hope that the Justice Department will not have to 
get involved in this issue. And while some have proposed a legislative 
fix, this also would not be my preferred solution, though ultimately, 
this may end up being the only effective means of addressing these 
problems. Instead, I would hope that those with the power to change or 
eliminate the BCS, including NCAA President Myles Brand as well as the 
university presidents and the conference commissioners in the BCS 
conferences, will hear the public outcry against the BCS and 
voluntarily work to reform the system to ensure that, as in every other 
American sport, championships are decided on the field and not in 
arbitrary polls and computer calculations. While a playoff seems like 
the most natural solution, other means may be available.
  That said, I want to say that I believe the University of Utah 
football team are champions in the truest sense of the word. They won 
on the field against worthy competition in a year when literally 
everyone else proved unable to do so. Once again, I want to 
congratulate University President Michael Young, Coach Whittingham and 
every member of the team for what proved to be an exhilarating and 
tremendous season. I also congratulate other teams that qualified for 
bowl games who were winners and deserve certainly the plaudits of all 
of us.
  I hope this helps to bring this matter to a head. I hope we can 
change this system that is an unjust system.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, let me say, first, what a pleasure it 
is to hear the distinguished Senator from Utah speak about his 
beautiful State and his beloved Utes.

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