government's newest matter of pressing importance

So we've got huge economic and tax problems in this country. Illegal immigration has gone on unchecked for who knows how many years now. There are terrorists abroad (and at home too) trying to kill us and seize our ships. Human-rights abuses abound on over half the globe and even here in the States. Every year more and more countries are running right by us in the race to educate the next generation. Our country faces an impending energy shortage and nobody seems to want to do anything about it.

If you're into much-ado-about-nothing hoopla that the media likes to whip up every so often, there's this swine flu coming onto the scene to worry about. If you're an environut with a weak grasp of science and history, there's "climate change" to address. If you're a libertarian, there's...well, pretty much everything the fedgov does these days.

And the list goes on. You get the idea...regardless of your political bent, there's no lack of crises to freak out over, right? And with the government not pretending to be shackled by the likes of the Constitution or moral responsibility or any other such restraint, there's no shortage of issues it could tamper with and try to "fix."

So what is on all-powerful Congress' agenda these days? The evils of college football's BCS system. No kidding. Apparently they're just plum out of stuff to do over there on the Potomac.

Now there are so many ways one could question this. For starters, one could go with, "Is that really a more pressing issue than, say, anything else at all on your plate? Really?" Or, "Are you sure you have the authority to tell the NCAA how it must choose its national champion?" Or perhaps, "Being the government, what makes you think you're remotely capable of solving the problem or at least not making it worse?" Or maybe, "Oh, excellent, so now the government is the final arbiter of fairness in yet another small piece of society?" Or even, "So you bunch of lawyers and businessmen know how to run a sports league better than the sports guys currently running it, huh?" Or, "Wait, before I bother to care, could someone please explain to me how this affects or benefits the workings of business, schools, society, or something else I already care about?" Or simply, "WTF?"

Any one of these is a legitimate question for which the government utterly lacks a legitimate answer. But that's okay, they don't have to actually answer for anything they do these days. It's that same old "act first, ask questions later, and blame the other guys for anything that goes wrong" we're getting too used to seeing.

Anyway, seems the suits in Washington want a playoff instead of the current bowl system. As for the issue itself, I do see a lot of logic in that. I myself would much rather see the NCAA let its teams battle it out on the field rather than subject the championship to the opinions of a bunch of writers--which is basically what the BCS has been watered down to these days. It was once a great idea, one that would rank teams impartially based on a wide set of computer-generated rankings and human polls, so that regardless of the outcome, at least nobody could cry and scream bias or ignorance of lesser teams or whatever. Okay, so it needed a little tweaking, but I still think it was a grand idea in the beginning. Trouble is, they tweaked pretty much all the impartiality out and now we're back to mostly human judgment with a bunch of impartial rankings counting for some small amount. I'd personally rather see an even playing field that isn't dependent on the wisdom of a bunch of biased reporters.

But anyhow, I digress. The government is threatening to take on, and I figure will soon take on, the responsibility of not only figuring out the best way to run college football's postseason but also forcing the NCAA to implement whatever solution it devises. Uh, yeah, that'll fix the problem right up. As if the whole mess wasn't controversial enough already, now we've got the feds involved. Swell! Maybe, just maybe, they'll impart the kind of wisdom and success they've imparted on every other once-private realm they've taken a role in.

Awesome job, guys. That makes me so glad I went out and voted in the last election. It's great to know my government has the most critical needs of its citizens front and center.

Or actually, as I like to say, it's a good thing the government is spending such time on these lesser matters, because that's time they aren't spending screwing up something of greater importance. So...maybe we should all rejoice?

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