Does the BCS really need an act of Congress?

North Korea might lob missiles in our direction any day now. Our soldiers are being sent in mass numbers to the unforgiving land that is Afghanistan. And no one yet has a clue what to do with the economy.

It is a perilous time when nothing but sober, serious leadership will do.

And Sen. Orrin Hatch will get right on it for us - right after he makes sure the University of Utah football team gets a chance to play for the national championship.

The fact that Hatch happens to be from Utah is, of course, purely coincidental. This is (cough, cough) about fair play for oppressed student-athletes. Or at least oppressed fans of those student-athletes, denied the opportunity to hold their index finger aloft and shout "We're No. 1." Where's the humanity?

The long-standing senator, who once campaigned for the Republican nomination for President, wants to sick the hounds on the BCS, saying, among many other things, "the Justice Department ought to be looking at this."

Well, I looked it up. The DOJ web site has a section under the heading "What We Do." It's a lengthy list: combating terrorism, apprehending most-wanted fugitives, upholding civil rights, combating gang violence, ending violence against women, fighting trafficking in persons, and managing prisons and inmates.

I double-checked.

Nowhere does it say, "Make sure Utah gets a shot at Tim Tebow."

Look, the BCS sucks.

It's a lousy way to determine a national football champion. I'm not even sure the winner of the BCS deserves to called the national champion. To me, it's a made-for-TV title that I just can't take seriously.

But - oh bitter irony - Sen. Hatch, especially as a Republican, should understand that the marketplace eventually will prevail and we'll have a playoff. One of these days the dollars will speak loudly enough and it will happen. And when we do, Utah still won't win the championship.

The Desert News, the leading newspaper in Utah, contacted University of Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman, who serves on the BCS oversight committee. He told the paper, "It's hard respond to this without appearing to be disrespectful of Utah."

The newspaper also paraphrased Perlman, saying "he essentially said the Utah school played a powder-puff schedule compared to teams in automatic-berth conferences."

There is a better debate than whether Utah played a strong enough schedule to merit consideration for the BCS title game. The debate is whether a United States senator should concern himself with such things when there are a few more important matters that should be on his plate. This is such low-hanging fruit, though, I guess he couldn't resist.

Utah was 13-0 last season and waxed Alabama 31-17 in the Sugar Bowl, so I appreciate the Utes' frustration at being left out of the BCS mix - OK, not really. I would like to see a playoff because what we have now is just ridiculous. The BCS is nothing but a bloated attempt to preserve the current bowl system, but to me all it has done is render every game but the championship virtually meaningless.

New Year's Day used to be one of the greatest days in sports. You had the Cotton Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, the Rose Bowl, and if you still had room in your belly for more potato chips and chicken wings, you could watch the Orange Bowl. Now they've got those bowls spread out on separate days and that just ruins it, not to mention that something called the International Bowl was actually played after Florida beat Oklahoma for the BCS title.

So, yeah, I'm not a big fan of what we have. Neither is President Obama, who has used his status as Fan In Chief to campaign for a playoff. I have no problem with that twitter-like approach because it's a long country mile from threatening antitrust action and all the other sabers Sen. Hatch has been rattling over this issue.

I mean, would he care so passionately if the team getting jobbed last year was from California, or Nevada, or Arizona, or Montana?

I think we know the answer to that.

Until then, though, the economy and everything else can wait.