Sunday’s question of the day: Should there be a federal investigation into the BCS?

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Sen. Orrin Hatch wants a federal investigation of the BCS. Should it be investigated?

Reporters from around the Tribune family tackle the question of the day, then you get a chance to chime in and tell them why they are wrong.

Paul Doyle, Hartford Courant

Let’s start with the obvious -- the BCS should be abolished and replaced by a playoff system that crowns a college football national champion on the field. But is this a problem of such national importance that a federal investigation is necessary?
Sorry, Sen. Hatch, no. You may still be smarting because unbeaten Utah was locked out of the BCS title game last year, but isn’t there a better way to push for change?
Funding a federal investigation of college football at a time when millions are losing their jobs and lawmakers are bickering over health care reform is beyond inappropriate. And shouldn’t a small-government conservative like Hatch be appalled at such a wasteful use of taxpayer dollars?
Look, the system needs an overhaul ,and we’re not sure conference and college administrators are up to the task. But no matter how much fans hate the BCS or members of the sports media complain, this is an issue that should be way so low on the government’s to-do list that we’ll never see an investigation.

Andrea Adelson, Orlando Sentinel
Haven’t we seen all this already? The federal government decides to stick its nose in sports, hold Congressional hearings that waste taxpayer dollars, wag its finger and then do nothing. If Sen. Orrin Hatch really thinks something will come of a Justice Department investigation into the BCS, he should look at what happened when the government looked into steroids in sports.
I am against the Bowl Championship Series, but it is not up to the federal government to clean up this mess. The government should instead figure out how to clean up the economic mess. Whether the BCS violates anti-trust laws cannot be a priority right now, not when our country has an unemployment rate of 10 percent and rising, not when the dollar is sinking and there appears to be no end in sight to this recession.
The NCAA, university presidents and athletic directors must come up with a better way to crown a college football champion. The government has no business intervening.