Poll: Plurality of fans don't want Congress involved in BCS

A new poll shows that a plurality of college football fans do not want Congress to get involved in college football's national championship system.

But in latest Quinnipiac poll, fans overwhelmingly said they favor getting rid of the existing Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and replacing it with a single-elimination playoffs system.

"College football fans are not in love with the current system," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "But as much as they want a national championship tournament, they aren't wild about Congress getting involved." 

The poll comes as the college bowl season is heating up and after a House subcommittee this month passed a bill encouraging the creation of playoff system. The poll appears to endorse the BCS' position that Congress should not get involved in college football.

48 percent of fans replied that is it a "bad idea" for Congress to "force" college football to institute a playoff system. 45 percent called the plan a "good idea" and 7 percent said they did not know.

The numbers broke down party lines. 60 percent of independents and 55 percent of Republicans supported congressional action while only 37 percent of Democrats backed it.

But 63 percent of fans said they favor the replacement of the BCS with a playoff system while 26 percent opposed it. 

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) sponsored the bill that passed subcommittee.

Currently, the two teams that play for major college football's national champion are selected by a complex rankings system administered by the BCS.

Critics say that the system is unfair to smaller schools that the rankings do not select to play for the national championship and rarely select to play in big BCS bowl games. 

Bill Hancock, executive director of the BCS, said a playoff alternative would be impractical.

“It’s easy to support a hypothetical playoff on paper, but no one has come up with a viable way to actually create one without diminishing the value of the regular season and ending the bowl games as we know them," Hancock said. "Yes, a playoff could be created, but at a tremendous loss to the unique game that we love.”

Matthew Sanderson of Playoff PAC, a political action committee dedicated to instituting a playoff system, said the poll is an outlier.

"The Quinnipiac poll seems to be an outlier compared to the 85- or 90-percent BCS disapproval ratings we've seen elsewhere," he said. "However...we already knew Playoff PAC had more work to do in helping people think past knee-jerk reactions and consider college football's connection to school budgets, capital projects, academic programs, alumni networks, and admission applications."

Sanderson also said he was not surprised at the results given the questions' wording.

Barton's office did not respond to requests for comment.

This post was updated at 3:36 p.m.

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