Lawmaker hopes to flush college bowl system
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published April 25, 2008 at 11 p.m.
Perhaps Ralphie, the University of Colorado buffalo, will make an appearance at the Capitol to lobby for Sen. Shawn Mitchell's resolution urging Colorado's universities to push for playoffs, not bowl games, in college football.
"He would just trample a few senators, and no one would know the difference," said the Broomfield Republican, whose resolution is expected to go before the House and Senate before lawmakers end their session in the next few days.
Actually, instead of Ralphie, Mitchell is hoping former University of Colorado President Hank Brown can make an appearance in support of the resolution.
Mitchell, like many college football fans, is fed up with the system of bowl games. So, he decided to apply some pressure where it might make a difference. Mitchell believes that if colleges and universities push the National Collegiate Athletic Association to change the system, they might make some progress.
The resolution directs the University of Colorado, Colorado State University and other state public institutions to "support a playoff system for Division I collegiate football."
Mitchell acknowledges that the resolution is not going to trigger immediate results. But he's hoping that lawmakers around the country might hear about the resolution and push their own publicly funded universities to insist on an end to the bowl system.
"I've always wondered, like fans everywhere, why the schools and the NCAA wouldn't budge," he said.
"People wonder if it's up to the TV networks. It's really the NCAA, the leagues and the currently benefiting schools. So the pressure needs to be applied to them."
303-954-2502 or McCrimmonK@RockyMountainNews.com
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April 26, 2008
3:14 a.m.
Suggest removal
cableboy764 writes:
Too bad the lawmakers don't have any other business to attend to. I know this is the most important thing happening in this country right now.
"Your tax dollars at work"
April 26, 2008
10:59 a.m.
Suggest removal
rwmorrisonjr writes:
Another waste of time and money. Can we amend the constitution so that the legislative session only lasts 90 days, and is done in the middle of summer so that its extremely uncomfortable for them to work there? That would definitely make them think twice about how they spend their time when they're "working".
April 26, 2008
3:30 p.m.
Suggest removal
chitownkid374 writes:
this is pretty stupid. i have to agree that our "public servants" should start doing something that actually matters and leave baseball (Mitchell Report), Football (the nausiatingly deemed "spygate"), and this new anti-BCS lobbying off of Capitol Hill. Maybe setting Ralphie loose in Congress would be a good thing.
- GO BUFFS (and lawmakers STOP WORRYING ABOUT COLLEGE FOOTBALL AND DO YOUR JOB!)