don't they have better things to do damn it?
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WASHINGTON - Shortly after winning last year's <span id="lw_1256148408_0" class="yshortcuts">presidential election</span>, <span style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BACKGROUND: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; CURSOR: hand" id="lw_1256148408_1" class="yshortcuts">Barack Obama</span> said he was going to "to throw my weight around a little bit" to nudge college football's <span style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed; CURSOR: hand" id="lw_1256148408_2" class="yshortcuts">Bowl Championship Series</span> to move to a playoff system.</p>
On Wednesday, <span style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BACKGROUND: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; CURSOR: hand" id="lw_1256148408_3" class="yshortcuts">Sen. Orrin Hatch</span> took him up on that.</p>
Hatch asked the president to launch a <span style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BACKGROUND: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; CURSOR: hand" id="lw_1256148408_4" class="yshortcuts">Justice Department investigation</span> into the way the BCS - a <span id="lw_1256148408_5" class="yshortcuts">complex system</span> of <span style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BACKGROUND: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; CURSOR: hand" id="lw_1256148408_6" class="yshortcuts">computer rankings</span> and polls that often draws criticism - crowns its national champion.</p>
"Mr. President, as you have publicly stated on multiple occasions, the BCS system is in dire need of reform," Hatch, R-Utah, wrote in a 10-page letter, obtained by The Associated Press.</p>
Hatch, who held a hearing on the BCS in July, told Obama that a "strong case" can be made that the BCS violates <span id="lw_1256148408_7" class="yshortcuts">antitrust laws</span>.</p>
Under the BCS system, some conferences get automatic bids to participate in top-tier bowls while others don't, and the automatic bid conferences also get far more of the revenue. Hatch's <span id="lw_1256148408_8" class="yshortcuts">home state school</span>, the <span id="lw_1256148408_9" class="yshortcuts">University of Utah</span>, is from the <span style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BACKGROUND: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; CURSOR: hand" id="lw_1256148408_10" class="yshortcuts">Mountain West Conference</span>, which does not get an automatic bid. The school qualified for a bid last season but was bypassed for the national championship despite going undefeated.</p>
The system "has been designed to limit the number of teams from non-privileged conferences that will play in BCS games," he wrote.</p>
Hatch said that the BCS arrangement likely violates the <span id="lw_1256148408_11" class="yshortcuts">Sherman Antitrust Act</span>, because, he argued, it constitutes a "contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in <span id="lw_1256148408_12" class="yshortcuts">restraint of trade</span> or commerce," quoting from the law.</p>
He said that the system "artificially limits the number of nationally-relevant <span style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed; CURSOR: hand" id="lw_1256148408_13" class="yshortcuts">bowl games</span> to five. The result is reduced access to revenues and visibility which creates disadvantages to schools in the non-privileged conferences." Hatch is the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary's subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights.</p>
The senator said that the hundreds of millions generated by college football "are hardly trivial sums," given that many schools use such revenue to fund things like other athletic programs.</p>
The White House declined to comment. The <span id="lw_1256148408_14" class="yshortcuts">Justice Department</span> and BCS officials had no immediate comment.</p>
Hatch's letter comes a few days after the BCS released its first standings of the year. And on Monday, a group of <span id="lw_1256148408_15" class="yshortcuts">college football fans</span> launched the Playoff PAC, with the hope of electing more lawmakers who will pressure the BCS to switch to a playoff system. Several lawmakers have introduced bills this year aimed at forcing a playoff system, but none of the bills has moved.</p> </div>