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May 25, 2012
Mark Clayton: Is Hillary's State Dept. hacking Al Qaeda? Not quite
Erika Bolstad: Temple cancels Wasserman Schultz speech
The Kosher Gourmet by Ethel G. Hofman: The former president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, whose members included the likes of Julia Child, is back with contemporary Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Sweet Noodle Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread
May 24, 2012
Jeff Jacoby: The peace process battered Israel's reputation
Michael Muskal: 'Pro-choice' position hits record low, according to poll
Chris Farrell: Are We in a Tech Bubble?
The Kosher Gourmet by Penelope Wall: PHILLY CHEESE STEAKS --- hold the steak!
May 23, 2012
Tony Pugh: More private colleges offering tuition discounts
Mary Beth Franklin: How to Choose the Right Annuity for You
Tina Susman: The wig wasn't enough: Man gets 13 years for posing as his dead mom
The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen:A simple way to do fish right
May 22, 2012
Warren Richey: Can US group challenge overseas surveillance act? Supreme Court to decide
Thomas M. Anderson: Walking Away From a Mortgage
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: Enjoy a celebration of the most rich and layered flavors: Black bean, sweet potato and quinoa chili
May 21, 2012
Mark Clayton: Cybersecurity: How US utilities passed up chance to protect their networks
Howard LaFranchi: NATO summit: Who will foot the bill for long-term Afghanistan security?
Chris Farrell : Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Stephen Whiteside, Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Social anxiety disorder --- or just shy?
Guy Jackson : Victim's father regrets death of Lockerbie bomber
The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: Famed chef's veal shoulder farsumagru: A festive meat course for late spring
May 18, 2012
Rabbi Berel Wein: Striving: The People of the Book's Book for (All of) the People
Steven Goldberg: 5 Great Stock Picks and the Exchange-Traded Fund that Owns Them
Mary Pickett, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Don't be forced into gluten-free lifestyle based merely on a doctor's false-positive test
The Kosher Gourmet by Carolyn Malcoun: DIY healthy lunchbox treats: HOMEMADE FRUIT BARS for kids and brown-bagging adults alike
May 17, 2012
Warren Richey: Teacher fired for being unwed and pregnant can sue religious school, court rules
Josh Mitnick: Netanyahu's 'centrist' coalition is already proving it's anything but
Steven Goldberg: Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Amina Khan: Research links coffee to lower death rates
The Kosher Gourmet by Faith Duran : Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Cheddar and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
May 16, 2012
Carmen Terzic, M.D., Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: A variety of exercises can help improve balance
Melissa Healy: National strategy on Alzheimer's disease aims to halt it by 2025
The Kosher Gourmet by Joyce White : GOODNESS GRACIOUS: GREENS! 4 winning recipes that are no longer just for down-home folks (Includes expert tips & techniques)
May 15, 2012
Kristen Chick: Obama administration resumes arms sales to Bahrain despite serious unresolved human rights issues. Activists feel abandoned
Pat Mertz Esswein: Homes are now affordable again and mortgage rates are low. What you need to know before you buy
Kathy Kristof: Our Practical Investor Fights Inflation with These 6 Investments
Sue Hubbard, M.D.: The Kid's Doctor: Lactose intolerant young child? Check again
The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Hunt: Spread a Little Excitement with EXOTIC CONDIMENTS (4 RECIPES)
May 14, 2012
Lisa Gerstner: How to Protect Your Identity, Finances If You Lose Your Phone
Harvard Health Letters: Heart disease and dementia
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: MANGO COCONUT OAT MORNING MUFFINS are a bright but hearty delight
May 11, 2012
Jessica L. Anderson: Get the Best Deal on a Used Car
Jett Stone: Forget face-lifts and fake knees. Scientists have seen the fountain of youth --- and it's broccoli
The Kosher Gourmet by Chef Mario Batali: The famed chef's vegetable dish that tastes true to the season: FAVAS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS WITH POTATOES AND TARRAGON
May 10, 2012
Sergei L. Loiko: Putin sends warning to U.S., NATO in Victory Day speech at Red Square
Mary Rourke: How being a 'mentch' got Vidal Sasoon his start and fighting in Israel's War of Independence provided him with confidence and a strong sense of his own identity
Jeff Bertolucci: Get Home Phone Service for Less Than $10 a Month
The Kosher Gourmet by Betty Rosbottom: Gleaming with its golden, crimson, and snowy white hues, this silken smooth and creamy STRAWBERRY ORANGE TRIFLE looks impressive, but is easy to prepare
May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
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Jewish World Review
Dec. 24, 2009
/ 7 Teves 5770
A law to mandate college football playoffs?
By
Michael Smerconish
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"We can walk and chew gum at the same time," U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, assured me during a phone conversation last week. Others might disagree — especially when they hear what question prompted his remark:
Should Congress be involved in revising college football's postseason?
Yes is the short answer.
There appears little disagreement among the public as to whether there should be playoffs. A 2007 Gallup survey found that 85 percent of college football fans favor changing the current system. Everyone from President Obama to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has said he'd prefer a playoff. A more active debate surrounds whether a House subcommittee should recently have approved legislation encouraging the NCAA to move in that direction.
Right now, a combination of two so-called human polls and a series of computer rankings (which take into account everything from who wins to where the game was played to a team's strength of schedule) determine which teams play in college football's national championship game. And every year at this time, the legions of reporters, observers and fans wishing to move to a single-elimination playoff — like the NFL, for example — take their shots at the Bowl Championship Series system.
The BCS thinks Congress has better things to do.
Citing his own consensus — the 120 major universities that believe the current system is the best postseason scenario for college football — BCS executive director Bill Hancock said to me: "I feel that with all the serious matters facing our country, surely Congress has more important issues than spending taxpayers' money to dictate how college football is played."
He's right, obviously. But nobody is saying that passing cap-and-trade and prodding college football are mutually exclusive. Congress would be wrong to litigate the BCS like they do cap-and-trade.
Green said as much during our conversation last week. He's a member of the subcommittee on commerce, trade, and consumer protection, the body that recently approved the College Football Playoff Act of 2009. The bill would bar college football from promoting an event known as a "national championship" game unless it is the end result of a single-elimination playoff system.
"Congress' job is not only to pass legislation, but shine light on issues that people are concerned about," Green told me. "And the reason our committee in Congress has any oversight at all over professional baseball, football, or the BCS is they enjoy an antitrust exemption."
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, made a similar point in an e-mail exchange last week. While college football's postseason isn't "the most important issue," he acknowledged, it is "a multibillion-dollar-a-year operation and it is interstate commerce."
"If Exxon Mobil and ChevronTexaco did in the oil industry what the BCS has done in college football," Barton told me, "they would be prosecuted for violating antitrust laws."
Hence the hearings and subcommittee action on the legislation — the kind of fleeting congressional intervention that has worked in the past. Indeed, Congress' treatment of baseball's steroids scandal over the last five years produced some of Major League Baseball's most damaging episodes.
Mark McGwire refusing to "talk about the past." Rafael Palmeiro wagging his finger as he denied taking steroids. Sammy Sosa sitting sheepishly as his attorney read a prepared statement. Those images forced baseball into adopting a strict ban on performance-enhancing drugs where they had previously been reluctant to look under the tarp that apparently had long-hidden baseball's steroids culture.
The examples go beyond sports. In 1994, executives from seven of the country's largest tobacco companies testified before a House subcommittee in what George Washington University political scientist Sarah Binder called the "coup de grace" in a slow-burning political and cultural movement against smoking. After the executives said under oath that they didn't believe cigarettes to be addictive, public sentiment turned sharply against them.
"The hearings basically forced executives from the big tobacco companies to talk under oath before Congress and to release loads of internal documents from the tobacco industry," Binder told me in an e-mail. "(Congressman Henry) Waxman was able to use Congress' investigatory powers to blow the lid on tobacco-company behavior — all without actually legislating at the time."
Congress is right to similarly spend a little time nudging college football toward a playoff. No need to call the Congressional Budget Office for a cost estimate. Hold a hearing or two, draft legislation, and hope that motivates the BCS to alter its postseason format.
Critics will no doubt view such efforts as another example of the federal government's growing influence where it ought not to be. Some may chastise a Congress that hasn't passed health reform for throwing a Hail Mary.
But college football and the BCS is a rarity in an otherwise starkly red/blue, liberal/conservative political time: a billion-dollar-a-year operation whose overhaul is supported by a bipartisan cadre of legislators and Americans from all walks of life (and athletic conferences).
Like an offense starting on its own goal line, there's much to be gained from moving the ball forward.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.
Previously:
12/17/09 Cheney's abuse of freedom of speech
11/26/09 The true cost of freedom from anxiety
10/27/09 If GOP wants to win in 2012, it must reshape its primary process
10/08/09 It's time to get smarter on extended school day
09/03/09 What a summer of eulogizing flawed public figures reveals about society
08/12/09 It's time for cyclists and motorists to reconcile
08/05/09 Faces have changed, but vitriol remains
06/25/09 Fair comment or foul? Warm up the Muzzle Meter
06/08/09 Believability is key in crime-hoax villains
05/14/09 Did Hollywood inspire the meltdown men?
04/20/09 Let's give killers their due: Anonymity
03/12/09 Uninsured who can't afford medical care lose a lot more
02/06/09 My debate with Musharraf on hunt for bin Laden
01/29/09 Torture must remain an option
01/15/09 Making a case for suing Madoff
12/22/08 A difficult but rational chat about plans
12/17/08 Facebook epidemic: More than 120 million have joined, many too old for this nonsense
12/01/08 The high price of downsizing the news biz
11/14/08 Prescience on greed, arrogance of a system
09/29/08 Closer look at party lines
08/26/08 Obama's pick creates GOP opportunity
08/21/08 Fishing with the Angry Everyman
07/31/08 The perils of e-mail: Ponder, then click
05/22/08 Two very different sides of the Internet
02/12/08 Sublimely ridiculous suits
11/28/08 Cell phones cut out secondary circle of kinship
09/26/07 What do we owe those who have died in Iraq?
08/30/07 A Navy SEAL's gut-wrenching tale of survival
07/30/07 First it was a faux pas, now it's a new word
© 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
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