By Jeff Mullin, Commentary
I am very upset about something and I want the government to intervene.
I don’t think the competition is fair, I think there is collusion going on, not to mention possible federal antitrust violations.
There is big money involved with this particular event, a competition with which our nation has become obsessed, and I think the cash is being doled out unfairly.
There have been competitive disadvantages, there are inequities in the system and there has been subjective judging of the various competitors’ merits.
Furthermore, I do not believe we should lower the standards of legal and ethical behavior simply because some dismiss this competition as unimportant. The essence of the free market is competition.
The government needs to do something, now.
No, this is not another rant against college football’s Bowl Championship Series, this is about something really important — “Dancing With the Stars.” I’m devastated Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin was voted off the dance floor, or the island, or whatever.
Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, however, cares much more about the BCS than DWTS. The good senator has launched another volley in his seemingly endless battle with the system that decides major college football’s national champion.
Some of the above statements are lifted directly from a letter Hatch sent to President Obama this week, an exhaustive 10-page missive detailing the faults and foibles of the nearly unfathomable system that annually determines which major college football team is the best in the land.
Hatch, of course, still is smarting because his beloved Utah Utes were left out of last year’s BCS title game, despite being undefeated.
He can rail on about antitrust violations all he likes, but he’s just steamed because his team was shunned.
To which I say, get over it. Life isn’t fair. Deal with it. Maybe Utah was the best team in college football last year, maybe not. In the end it doesn’t really matter.
In the big scheme of things, the BCS national championship is no more important than “Dancing With the Stars,” or any other so-called reality show.
College football is a big-money business, to be sure, but so is reality TV. “Dancing With the Stars” was the third-highest show in the Nielsen ratings for the week of Oct. 12-18. The show drew 16.79 million viewers. “Survivor: Samoa,” was 19th, with 11.78 million viewers, while “The Amazing Race 15,” was 20th with 10.92 million viewers. Reality TV is far more profitable than scripted shows, which is why viewers are treated to a steady diet of reality offerings.
Last year’s BCS championship game between Oklahoma and Florida drew 15.8 million viewers, not bad but not in the same league as DWTS.
How come Hatch isn’t railing about DWTS? After all, his former congressional colleague, Tom DeLay, had to leave the show because of injury earlier this season. Was that fair or did other dancers get special treatment? Inquiring minds want to know.
College football is entertainment, pure and simple. Granted, it is far more entertaining than reality TV shows, but it is entertainment nonetheless.
Leave it alone, Sen. Hatch. The BCS will be with us for the foreseeable future, or at least until 2015. Learn to live with it.
How about spending more time worrying about health care, the economy or the soaring unemployment rate, and less about which football teams bubble to the top when the BCS mavens stir their magic computerized cauldron? I’m sure the good people of Utah did not elect you to spend your time worrying about college football.
Mullin is senior writer of the News & Eagle. E-mail him at jmullin@enidnews.com.
