A brief news update in the politics of sports—

One of sports’ great anomalies is lack of uniformity in the application of antitrust legislation. Baseball is the only sport—and business for that matter—exempt from Congress’s blanket of trust-busting. Other sports do not enjoy such protection.

This time it’s college football that’s been caught on lawmakers’ radars. Senator Orin Hatch (R.-UT) is plotting a potential antitrust investigation into the NCAA’s Bowl Championship Series. He is planning hearings, too. Alleging that the current system “leaves nearly half of all teams…at a competitive disadvantage,” the investigation would look into strength of schedule disparities and other factors that go into the controversial computer ranking system.

Perhaps he’s grandstanding. More likely, he's for real--after all, every fan of college football hates the system and greatly prefers a playoff model. Or maybe he’s just still bitter about the fact that his states undefeated record wasn’t good enough for a spot in the ‘ship.