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The President Reads my Blog

I went to the drudgereport.com this afternoon, and the headline for the day was this http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/football/ncaa/01/29/obama.bcs.ap/index.html?xid=si_ncaaf .

I guess President Obama must have read my blog (not really though).

BCS (Big Corrupt System)

College football season is over, but the controversy rolls on. It is a controversy that many Utahns are passionate about, and it may be the only controversy that Senator Orrin Hatch (R. Utah) and President Barack Obama will ever agree on. It is the way that college football determines a national champion. Now, before non-football fans stop reading this entry, I want to let you know that this issue is not only about football. It is about equality and education. It has become a top priority for Utah’s Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff, and he has decided to tackle (pun intended) the problem head on by taking it to Washington.

In college football there is a group of 74 schools, divided into six separate conferences, that is infamously (depending on who you ask) known as the BCS. By some they are viewed as that older brother who will never let you win a game of one-on-one, even if that does mean cheating. To others they are a group as crooked as cigar smoking, back room dealing politicians. These descriptions are harsh, but they do not come undeserved. Without boring you with too many details of the system, the bottom line is that college football teams generate revenue by playing in post season games hosted by the BCS, and the BCS almost always guarantees itself 8 of the 10 teams in these games, including the national championship game.

Doesn’t sound fair? Just ask the University of Utah. In 2008 Utah’s football program went undefeated, and beat four nationally ranked opponents en route. Somehow that was still not enough to crack the top two in the BCS rankings. The BCS system determined Utah did not play against elite competition (despite the four ranked teams), and that it did not matter that they were the only undefeated team in the country. Aside from Utah, other schools including Boise State and Cincinnati have run into similar issues with the BCS. The message the BCS has sent to the outsiders, non-BCS schools, is that even perfection is not good enough to make it to the national championship.

Why does this all matter? It is just football, right? Wrong. Each BCS conference gets 18 million dollars, plus another 4 million for every additional school they send to a BCS bowl game. Remember, they guarantee themselves eight of ten spots almost every year. The non-BCS conferences get about 9 million dollars COMBINED. That is about 1.8 million per conference. With the BCS continuing to get the majority of the revenue, it becomes a case of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

The solution: the BCS should be disregarded, and a playoff system should allow both BCS and non BCS teams to have a chance at getting the money. The playoff system would ensure there is no bias in a selection of the championship game because teams would have to earn it through winning. The teams that deserved the money by winning in the playoffs would be the beneficiaries.

The money not only goes to building athletic programs, but also is spent on academic scholarships, computers, books, research, and any other areas the universities decide is necessary to improve education. Money that is that important should not be decided by a computer formula determined by a bias selection committee with their own interests in mind, namely, the BCS.

Random Fact: The Mountain West Conference (non-BCS) had two bowl games against BCS conference schools in 2009. Utah beat California and BYU beat Oregon State.

See what Utah Attorney General is doing about it: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=294&sid=9269002

The wheels on the bus go... What?

Utah’s public education system needs to find a stack of one dollar bills over 20 miles high (according to my calculations). They need to find it in order to pay off their 293 million dollar deficit. Considering the fact that stacks of cash are hard to come by these days, it is unlikely public schools are going to run into the illusive 20 mile high mountain of cash hiding in downtown Salt Lake City anytime soon. In the meanwhile, Senator Chris Buttars has come up with another idea to cut into the deep deficit. He has proposed an idea that would stop schools from running their bus routes. Senator Buttars believes that since most children do not ride the school bus, then it would only be a minority of people that would have to find rides to make it to class. Buttars is mainly allured by the idea because it could save what he says will be about 70 million dollars annually.

At first, the prospect of saving 70 million dollars seems enticing, but would that savings really pay off the costs of not having bussing for students? Senator Buttars is right when he says that most high school students do not ride the bus. This policy would not affect the majority directly, but it would definitely have an impact on the minority. It is typically students whose families struggle financially that use the bus system, and it would be difficult to find a way to get their children to school. Many families do not have enough cars, and others live too far away to get a ride. After school sports and extra curricular programs would also not have a mode of transportation to get to their activities. This may not be a problem for some parents, but it would be a problem for many who could not afford to become taxis. There are many situations that would be complicated by not having buses, but the bottom line is that it would strike a blow to the students who are already at a disadvantage. It would also hit the school districts harder who do not have the same financial means as others in the state. Certain school districts in Utah (Millard School District) have over half of their students on reduced lunch programs and most do not own cars. According to Deseret News “District officials (Millard) joked that their high school students are not about to start driving four-wheelers and tractors to school.”

Although it would be nice to have the extra 70 million dollars, which these days is as rare as a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, cutting the bus program is not the way to save money. It hurts the students, it hurts the parents, and it hurts the chances at an equal opportunity education. If the government is going to provide education they should provide a way to get there.

P.S. don’t forget all the bus drivers who would lose their jobs.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=690&sid=9320719

Welcome

These days it is easy to see the negative side of politics. Mudslinging, as it is often called, comes from every direction. It is hard to get involved without getting a bit dirty from the ongoing partisan power struggle that exists in American Politics. Unfortunately, it looks like the mud fight is not going away, and worse, it may even be evolving into an all out dirt-clod war. The constant bickering over politics is nothing new. Opponents of Thomas Jefferson exposed his affair with a black mistress (which turned out to be true), and people even exploited Abraham Lincoln’s unsightly looks (which surely deemed him unqualified to lead). Recent attacks have only been exponentiated by the media and technology of the 21st century ( top ten negative campaign ads http://totallytop10.com/current-affairs/politics/top-10-negative-campaign-ads-in-political-history).

Although the media has turned the mudslinging into a daytime soap opera, it is not the purpose of this blog to contribute to the bickering. This blog is dedicated to politics, but it is dedicated to the expression of opinions that will make a difference. By no means does that mean you will agree, or that there will not be any arguments about policies. Heck, things might even get heated, but I hope this blog can serve as a continued conversation debating the pros and cons of different political policies. Feel free to comment, disagree, agree, and even add your own solutions to the issues at hand.

“It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.” Joseph Joubert