Congress should stay out of football

On Thursday in Washington, a subcommittee of the United States House of Representatives conducted hearings on the swine flu.

Friday, a subcommittee tackled the Bowl Championship Series.

Insert your own joke.

Let's pray Congress knows more about pigs than pigskin, though, because its latest query into the controversial BCS system was predictably scary and comical.

Congressional credibility on college football took a hike from the opening gavel.

Gene Green, a Democrat representing Texas' 29th District, insisted on asking questions seated next to a football helmet representing his alma mater -- the University of Houston.

This prompted a response from Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), a graduate of Texas A&M.

"Mr. Chairman," Barton quipped to hearing-leader Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), "that violates House rules, but I'm not going to object!"

Welcome to the House subcommittee on Guffaws and Good Old Boys.

The four college football representatives summoned to testify -- two commissioners, an athletic director and a bowl rep -- had to stand before the chamber and swear under oath to tell the truth.

Yet, the interrogating congressmen weren't even bound to simple facts.

Rush introduced BCS coordinator John Swofford as the commissioner of the Athletic Coast Conference (it's the Atlantic Coast Conference).

Rush also said commissioner Craig Thompson represented the West Mountain (actually, it's Mountain West).

That, to us football followers, would be like calling one of our states "Dakota North."

Is this how a subcommittee prepares for hearings on global warming?

Reason for this latest waste of taxpayer time: Barton has introduced a bill that would prohibit the BCS from calling itself a national title game unless there's a playoff.

Since 1998, college football has used the BCS system of polls and computers to determine its title-game participants. The sport's leaders have long resisted a playoff because they think it would devalue the regular season and disrupt the complex bowl system that allows more than 60 schools each season to celebrate in postseason games.

The majority of college presidents remain adamantly opposed to any kind of playoff.

Last year, the BCS signed a four-year, $500-million deal with ESPN that extends the current format through the 2013 season.

But that hasn't stopped Congress from seizing on a political opening.