By Debbie Schlussel
Over recent years, I’ve written repeatedly about Congress’ and the rest of the Government’s absurd attempt to become sports czars. Whether it’s college or pro sports, these jock-sniffers in office want to run the show.
While a very few issues are legitimate–such as questioning the tax-exempt status for college sports programs, which in many cases really are the tax-funded, very profitable farm teams for billionaire pro sports team owners; and questioning why taxpayers must finance the sports palaces for gazillionaire team owners–most issues are not appropriate topics for the nannying interference of the likes of John Kerry and others. As I’ve noted Kerry and others interfered with Major League baseball cable and TV packages and NFL ones, too. The repeated Congressional hearings into steroid use in Major League Baseball were a joke and accomplished nothing.

#1 College Football Nanny:
Doing the “Work” Some Americans (From the BCS) Won’t Do
And now there is Barack Obama. If you saw his interview with Steve Kroft, last night on “Sixty Minutes”, you saw him call for something he and other self-appointed Congressional sports nannies have been calling for for years: a play-off system for college football’s Bowl Championship Series (BCS).
A definitive BCS championship is something that many sports fans want, since it’s never really been settled which college football team is number one. That’s because the arcane BCS system doesn’t always play the top two teams against each other. In fact, rarely do they face each other. And, in the end, while sometimes the best college football team is obvious, at other times it is not–and murky AP and coaches polls decide the season champions. Collegiate sports authorities have repeatedly admitted the reason they don’t have a definitive championship is that if they did, a lot of bowl games would immediately lose interest, viewership, and sponsor dollars. That’s not a good reason not to pick a winner.
Still, why is this the business of the next President . . . or anyone in government? Is our economy in such great shape that they have nothing better to do than stick our noses in something that, frankly, isn’t their business. Who cares about a possible auto industry bailout, when we have a BCS championship to worry about?
Now, to be fair, Kroft asked Obama about this. But he only did so because this is one of the “important” things Obama has pushed in the past. And it’s not like Obama said, “Steve, America has so many pressing issues. I’m not going get involved in that.”
Nope. Instead, Obama was already deciding the new future of college football and pledged to throw his “weight around” on this very important issue that will rescue families from losing their homes and their sudden inability to put food on the table.

Eight teams. That would be three rounds to determine a national champion. It would add three extra weeks to the season. You could trim back on the regular season. I don’t know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this. So, I’m going to throw my weight around a little bit. I think it’s the right thing to do.”

No, the right thing to do is stay out of sports and other similarly trivial things that really aren’t major problems facing America.
Echoes of Jimmy Carter overseeing the White House tennis court schedule.