Utah Attorney General Investigating BCS for Violation of AntiTrust Laws
 

Figure this deserves it's own thread.

The Associated Press: Utah AG: BCS may violate antitrust laws

Technically I think he could have a case. You have to show there is a conspiracy for a monopoly, which the BCS clearly is. However, those conferences do agree in a way to having themselves at a competitive disadvantage.

I am in favor of anything that brings about a playoff.

I believe all of the conferences signed on to the latest agreement which allowed for the other conferences to have an automatic bid.

But, this seems like it might be the most logical legal argument.

While certainly unlikely, I think saying that they never would get a shot at the title is a little misguided.

What's the best he's going to do? Expand the BCS bowls so every conference in 1A football gets an auto bid? You can't file an anti-trust action on how computers rank things and voters vote.

I've been wondering for a while how long it was going to take for this to happen. The BCS conferences have essentially invited this type of action.

To me the biggest obstacle they will face is that they have agreed to be a part of the BCS and agreed to be treated like second-class citizens.

That said, I like their chances and this is the time and place to do it. And barring the SEC, Big 12, ACC and Big East telling the Rose Bowl Parade to cram it with walnuts and start their own playoff, this is the best way to get one.

If college football goes to a playoff to determine a champion, I may never watch another game.

lol...you must not watch any other sport then.

They have multiple examples of undefeated teams not playing the championship. And to be honest, I can't think of a single scenario that would have a non-BCS school in the title game.

How is that done by the conferences conspiring? After all, Utah got an auto bid into the BCS. It just wasn't voted in to the top 2. Like I said, the best thing they can hope for is more automatic slots into BCS bowls.

The tradition and meaning of the bowls is something unique to Division I-A college football and gives it a flavor and richness that would be lost if it went to a playoff.

When over half the teams go to a bowl, that richness is very diluted.

I used to think the same way. However, tradition has been gone for a while.

LSU got in last year with 2 losses. If another situation like that could possibly happen again and somebody like Utah is sitting there undefeated, I think it's gonna be harder and harder to ignore them. Hawaii just isn't the kind of team that's going to make voters put them into the title game. The team that breaks through is going to have built up previous amounts of credibility to do it.

Well, I was speaking more of the richness of tradition. That said, I don't think 6-6 should be bowl-eligible. In my opinion, if you don't have a winning record, you don't deserve to go to a bowl game.

You don't have to get rid of the bowls to have a playoff.

Except that pretty much every bowl would still be in place in every playoff system I have heard proposed. Even the most outlandish playoff systems only go to 16 teams, and 60-plus FBS colleges go to bowls every year.

Did anybody look at Utah's schedule this year? LSU with two losses is still a better showing than that crap of a schedule that Utah played.

Ole Miss would make Utah their bitch.

Not a Alabama fan at all, but the Tide did beat Ole Miss and win the Division that the Rebels compete with 'Bama in.

Didn't Utah handle one of these teams pretty easily just a handful of days ago?

So, does that mean if Florida beats Oaklahoma that Ole Miss is the National Champs since they beat Florida? If Oaklahoma wins is Texas on top...et.

Its one big circle jerk.

I mean Ole Miss vs Utah now, not six weeks ago. Bring on the Yutes.

We'll just call it a grudge match.

:lol:

AP Top 25
4. Alabama 12-1 1,410
11. TCU 10-2 921
17. Brigham Young 10-2 477
24. Oregon State 8-4 163

I wouldn't say that's all that horrible.

But seriously, Utah's claim they should be in the title game should be answered with, go back and add some decent teams to your schedule and then come back and talk to us.

First of all, take Bama off, that was not a regular season game. Seriously, TCU and BYU? Both of those teams are getting a fluff bump from their pitiful easy schedules. Any BCS conference team played a schedule that is twice as tough. Let Utah face LSU, Florida, Oaklahoma State and any other mid BCS team in their schedule and I bet they end up with a loss and probably two.

Utah actually played a pretty tough schedule. I think their schedule is better than what some SEC teams played this year.

In all honesty, I do agree that Utah is a very good team. But they are not playing a top tier schedule. They did a good job in beating bama. My real point is that most BCS conference teams play a tougher schedule year over year. It makes sense to rate a one loss BCS team over Utah with the current schedule.

Or of course, go with the tourney !!

Also lol at handled easily.

At the same time, LSU had Appalachian State, Troy, and North Texas scheduled. Oh yeah, and Tulane. Another win came against an awful Miss St. team.

I'm not sure what game you watched, but I'd call what Utah did handling the Tide pretty easily. Bama was within one score for a grand total of 1 minute 37 seconds in the second half. They were outgained 349-208 and averaged a whopping 3.4 yards a play for the game.

As for Utah's schedule, I'm not sure what you expect them to do. They played in the big house this year and it's not like it was their fault that the game they scheduled 5 or 6 years ago ended up being against the worst Michigan team in the last fifty years. They played a solid PAC10 team at home in Oregon State.

Look, they clearly surprised Bama. Bama was also not mentally into the game. They were deflated about the Florida game and their star tackle was out. But don't sit here and blame Utah for that. They did what they had to do all season long. I don't think there is a chance in hell that they'd be undefeated if they played in the Big 12 or SEC.

I also don't think they'd hold up in a playoff system if they had to play 3 straight games against teams like LSU, USC, Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio State or Florida.

Despite that opinion, I'd sure as hell love to see them get the chance.

I'd be fine with keeping the status quo and instead, creating a mid-major tournament that would eliminate all of the silly second-tier bowls. Like the NIT National Championship or something.

How do you figure Ole Miss does that? Alabama is the 2nd best team in the SEC and they were destroyed by Utah.

And Utah plays the best out of conference schedule they can. It wasn't their fault that Michigan had one of their worst years. They can't help it that the teams in their conference don't recruit as well. I guarantee you that top schools will avoid Utah. Good luck finding a single powerhouse that will travel on up to Utah.

I'd also point out that the Mountain West is not that bad. After the bowls are all over, they'll end up being the 4th ranked conference in football this year. TCU is a strong team that lost both their games to top 5 teams. Their defense is arguably one of the best in the nation. They also beat a team that was one half away from winning the Pac-10.

But this is why the system sucks. Not only do you have to win your games, but you have to pray that the teams you play end up being good. It's the only sport out there where your fate is determined by how the teams on your schedule fare. USC is not in the title game because people believe the teams on their schedule didn't play as well as the ones on Floridas or Oklahomas. The same goes for Penn State, Texas, and Texas Tech.

Maybe USC should help their rivals like UCLA recruit better players so they have a shot at the national championship in the coming years.

Did you watch the game? Utah completely dominated Alabama's offense. They held them to 200 yards and 10 points. 8 sacks and 3 forced turnovers. Utah's offense moved the ball at will and put up 31 points on the "vaunted Alabama defense".

While the scoreboard at times might have looked close, this game was a dominating win for Utah from start to finish.

They run into the same problems that Boise has. No one will play them. I guarantee you that they'd jump at the chance to have a home and home with Florida or USC. Unfortunately, the powerhouses have learned not to schedule those teams.

They are! We already took one, and are angling for more. ;)

Of course, they took a couple from us earlier this season, and a couple of our recruits are visiting there this month.

Yeah. What's stopping all the smaller leagues from forming their own playoff series. Its not like someone from the MAC will play for the BCS title any time soon.

Why not just create a new division for those teams then since they are not allowed to win the D1 title? Then those 6 conferences can just play each other all year since they don't believe the other conferences count.

Thats the way it should be.

Then the 4 big conferences out of those 6 will setup a new structure to keep the money out of the other two conferences. This will go on and on till there is one or two conferences left.

I'm sure that's exactly what would happen.

I'd agree with this but those decent teams won't schedule teams like this. It's the same in basketball. BCS teams won't schedule quality power mid-majors for this very reason. They might lose. How many times will you ever see Ohio State or Florida or Oklahoma play at Utah? You won't. Utah would be lucky to get an out of conference away game against those teams much less a home game.

ESPN did a great segment with Fresno State years ago after a couple succesful seasons. They went through how hard it was for them to schedule teams. They finally landed USC which was enormous to them. But the whole segment was them trying to get games against any major conference school who would play them and consistently getting shot down.

In fact, I think Wisconsin's trip to Fresno this year is the first time a ranked out of conference foe has ever traveled to Fresno. Something like that. It was a huge deal out there to them.

Maybe the key is for the BCS to force some of the scheduling. I don't know, anything that is done is a patch as playoffs are avoided.

Nice to see this thread descend into the usual people claiming SEC teams rule over all.

Go Utah's AG. Sixteen team (11 conference champs, 5 wild cards) playoff please.


One person? The SEC haters on this board crack me up, such persistence. Even better that they're usually Big Ten or Big East fans.

Why don't they just crown the SEC champion as National Champion?

Crown their ass!

So lets look to 09...I will use BYU because they just announced their OOC schedule for 09.

BYU will play...

Oklahoma
Florida State
Tulane

plus the MWC schedule..

Hypothetical what if here....So if they run the table like Utah did, you are saying that a 2 loss LSU or Florida or Texas would still be better because of the conference they are in?

I mean, that is what I am hearing sprinkled throughout this thread....

I hate Utah as much as any other, my bias to them is now one of my best friends from high school is their DC and called one hell of a game against Alabama. But truly and honestly, they deserve the #1 because they are undefeated and they beat some great teams to get there.

And one other thing, we know Michigan wasn't that great, but Utah still went up to their place and won there as well.

Strength of Schedule doesn't mean anything? Because if you look at the computer SOS, Utah is a good deal behind Oklahoma or Florida (or Texas & USC for that matter).

It is definitely a component, but not the biggest. If you also look at the overall computer rankings, Utah is #3 or #4 in most.

Which, of course, means they wouldn't be in the NC game anyways ;).

Though, according to the final BCS Computer standings:

College Football BCS Standings, NCAA College Football BCS Standings, NCAA Football BCS Standings - ESPN

Utah was 5th with the computers.

If I was an AP voter, I'd vote for Utah just to fuck with things. Feinstein wrote a great column too.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...010600092.html

But if you look at their schedule, it's not that bad. They beat 4 ranked teams, including the 2nd best teams in the SEC and Pac-10. They beat a TCU team which is a top 10 team with maybe the best defense in the country. They also went into the Big House and beat Michigan.

And I think we've seen that many of these power conferences are nowhere near as good as we thought. The Big 12 has not been impressive at all in the postseason. In fact, the Pac-10 has had a great bowl run and that is a conference that got whooped up on by the MWC.

Then again, that is the problem with college football. The championship isn't determined by players, but perception of those players. We have this perception that the Big 12 and SEC were the best conferences in football. In actuality, they probably weren't.