Lawmakers launch PAC to push for college football playoff

A bipartisan group of lawmakers fed up with the lack of a college football playoff have formed their own political action committee, Playoff PAC.

The group includes Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), who have all railed against the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) system that makes it all-but-impossible for small schools to win a national championship.

Abercrombie and Hatch have home-state interests in seeing a playoff system. The University of Hawaii, University of Utah and Brigham Young University are perennial contenders to go undefeated in a season, but, because they don't play in one of the major conferences, they're never mentioned as possible national champions in college football's top flight.

Abercrombie blasted as "arbitrary" and "anti-competitive" the most recent BCS rankings, which had only one small school, No. 4 Boise State University, in the Top 10.

"The BCS process continues to operate like an exclusive country club rather than a true play-off system," Abercrombie said.

President Obama last fall also backed a playoff system to decide a winner when several teams have the same record at the end of the season. But former college football stars who also served in Congress have defended the current system.

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