During today’s Senate hearing concerning the fairness and legality of the Bowl championship Series, Utah senator Orrin Hatch restrained from pulling off an impression of fellow congressman Joe Barton in a similar situation.
Following the hearing, however, Hatch made it clear what he thinks of the BcS and what he would like to see happen.
“Frankly, there’s an arrogance about the BCS that just drives me nuts,” Hatch said. “Hopefully this hearing will open the door to have some people reconsider their positions. And if nothing else, the Justice Department ought to be looking at this.”
“Arrogance” in the same sentence as the three-letter oligarchy — thank you, Spencer Tillman — should come as no surprise as it’s been ongoing since the organization’s inception, and was particularly evident in a pair of interviews leading up to today’s proceedings. The arrogance which Hatch spoke of, however, is utterly lost on the new head of the BcS Presidential Oversight Comittee.
“I don’t think it’s arrogant if you’ve thought about something for five or six years, and concluded that’s it’s really hard to do something different,” Harvey Perlman, whose day job is chancellor of Nebraska, said according to the Associated Press.
Ummm, got hubris?
Perlman also held steadfast to a straw-man company line that never ceases to bleat from a vast array of sheep with a vested interest in the continuation of the current system.
“We are university presidents, and we are sensitive to what Congress thinks, and sensitive about what the president thinks,” Perlman said. “But our primary responsibility is to manage our institutions in ways that protect student athletes, that acknowledges their academic pursuits as well as their athletic pursuits.”
Just stop it, Mr. Perlman and your ilk.
Stop it right now with the “protect student athletes” mantra that is tossed about anytime the subject of an alternative to the current system is broached.
The day that anyone involved in the pursuit of higher learning puts a stop to the offseason weightlifting program… the extended spring practice schedule… the offseason conditioning program… the “voluntary” weightlifting/conditioning programs following spring ball… the offseason passing-game programs… the summer programs… the money-making extensions to the regular season otherwise known as conference title games…
Once one single, solitary university stands up and curbs the amount of time a “student-athlete” is strongly encouraged to devote to football during the “offseason” is the day anyone should take their self-serving interest in a student-athlete’s best interests to heart.
Although, it’s this very argument that reveals the BcS for what it is and what it will always be: a soulless system out for the Big Six’s bottom line.
Other D-1A conferences and the backs of the student-athlete’s be damned.
The Harvey Perlman’s of the world will be greeted by angry mobs with pitchforks… Eventually
To suggest that this is about anything but money is the worst kind of hypocrisy from the college presidents.
Rarely in life do we see arrogant pigs get their proper comeuppance… we might just get to see it this time.
[...] for most fans of the sport, the “arrogance” of the powers-that-be in college football appears to be subsiding a bit, with some type of [...]
[...] taking the public lead on what’s essentially an anti-playoff stance is far from surprising. Long an opponent of any type of playoff at this level, Perlman has testified in front of Congress in support of the [...]