Shurtleff moves ahead with BCS probe
By Ben Winslow
Deseret News
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is pushing forward with his antitrust investigation into college football's Bowl Championship Series, preparing to send out investigative subpoenas and trying to gain political allies.
He may have major support in newly appointed U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
Shurtleff chatted up the new U.S. attorney general at a meeting this week of the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington, D.C. During a question and answer session, Shurtleff asked if President Obama's administration would work with him on an antitrust case over the BCS.
"His immediate response was, 'As soon as the president hears what your question was, it'll be No. 1 on the cabinet meeting agenda,' " Shurtleff joked.
During a handshaking moment later, Shurtleff said Holder told him he was serious about looking into an antitrust action involving the BCS, but was waiting to see what would happen with the appointment of his new antitrust section chief. Obama has said he favors a national playoff system over the current system.
The Deseret News first reported on Shurtleff's decision to pursue an antitrust probe of the BCS after he returned from New Orleans earlier this year, where he watched the undefeated University of Utah football team beat Alabama's Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl. Utah was not declared a national champion, nor did it rank No. 1 in the Associated Press' final poll.
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BCS officials have defended themselves, saying they are within the law and that the system they have for postseason football is one agreed upon by all 11 collegiate athletic conferences.
Shurtleff said his office's investigation into the BCS is still in the "discovery stage."
"Most of the contracts are confidential and so the first step was to ask kindly and the answer was no," he told the Deseret News Tuesday. "Now we're issuing subpoenas."
To make an antitrust case, Shurtleff has to argue a conspiracy that, in effect, creates a monopoly. In the BCS system, he has suggested that with thousands of athletes and millions of dollars at stake, the BCS schools get more money, better stadiums and better recruits. Add to it the ranking and voting system for which teams get into a BCS bowl game and it removes schools like Utah.
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