Satisfying ending unlikely for 'BCS Goes to Washington'

When I tried to arrange an interview, a spokesman said Towns would rather not comment on college football and was concentrating on working on the stimulus package. In other words, Mr. Towns realizing there are priorities.

These are powerful, wise, accomplished men. But when it comes to college football's postseason, they are mostly clueless. They might think they know, but they don't.

"We're trying to get the NCAA's attention on this," Miller said. "We'd like them to take care of the problem. If they don't, we'll take care of it legislatively."

The NCAA has virtually nothing to do with the postseason. The public and politicians seem to continually miss that fact. I wrote last year about Abercrombie's own realization that he doesn't have all the facts straight. The BCS is not the NCAA's baby. It's a system managed by the commissioners and the presidents. Basically, a high-profile LLC with its own lawyers that believes it is on firm legal ground.

It was laughable last week when Mountain West officials toured the House and Senate for two days to "raise public awareness," as commissioner Craig Thompson put it. The House and Senate were in recess. Thompson said he instead spoke to senior staff.

Two recommendations for the MWC: 1) Visit while the lawmakers are actually voting on stuff; 2) Make your case to someone besides the appointment secretary.

It's also suspicious when legislators from Utah, Hawaii, Texas and Georgia get involved. Utah has a giant beef, having gone undefeated yet unable to be in the championship game. Texas lost out to Oklahoma in that controversial Big 12 tiebreaker. Hawaii went undefeated in 2008 before being blasted by Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Ah yes, Georgia. School president Michael Adams embarrassed himself last year, proposing an eight-team playoff after his two-loss Bulldogs had to suffer the indignity of playing in New Orleans.

Rather than reform, these guys seem like they're playing to their audience, pandering for votes, trying to stay elected.

That still doesn't explain Miller's interest. His district includes affluent Southern California counties in the Los Angeles area. So what prompted him to call for a playoff? A lunch that included former USC star Anthony Davis.

Davis is a spokesman for BCSReform.org, a website that is a "grassroots alliance of college football fans and former players joining together to lobby Congress to pass legislation to implement college football playoffs."

Davis portrays himself as a populist. As far back as 1974, his senior year, he thought there should have been something more after Oklahoma and USC shared the national championship.

"We should have played against each other," he said.

"Because I'm a national champion, for me to step out and talk about it, I have an audience," Davis added. "I have all that in perspective. The economy is bad, two wars. I agree with you. It's a backburner issue. You take it as it comes. If they get to it, they need to address it hard."

Aside from Barack Obama's rumblings, that's as close as the BCS argument gets to celebrity status. Miller is going ahead with his bill in the face of the darkest economic time in our country in decades.

"We've got a system out there where a lot of young people are participating in," he said. "There are millions of fans who follow this. Let's have a system that is actually fair."

Let them have their fun. Sooner or later the serious issues will knock these bills off the docket. Or you can look at it another way: With an .041 batting average, maybe a guy like Miller is due.

For the rest of the national notes read Dennis Dodd's blog Dodds and Ends.