Many former U.S. Presidents have had their influence on the sporting world. Gerald Ford was the MVP of the Michigan football team. George Bush, Sr. played first base at Yale and reached the national championship. And Teddy Roosevelt was famous for boxing with the members of his Cabinet in the White House’s state rooms.
In addition to President-elect Barack Obama’s ambitious goals for reforming America, he will certainly set aside time to impact the world of U.S. sports.
In the week before the elections, Obama offered his professional opinion on the college football Bowl Championship Series system.
In the BCS, teams are ranked and allocated to the four most prestigious bowl games based on their national rankings in the two media polls and a computer average. In this system, the teams that will play in the national championship game are largely determined by a series of calculations.
One way to eliminate this ambiguity and teams feeling excluded from a deserved ranking is to move to a playoff system. Obama sees this as the best option for college football.
“I think it is about time that we had playoffs in college football,” Obama said in an interview with sports personality Chris Berman. “You know, I am fed up with these computer rankings, and this and that and the other. Get eight teams. The top eight teams right at the end. You’ve got a playoff. Decide on a national champion.”
Does Obama have the power to make this happen? After being elected, Obama sent an official memo to the BCS executive office lobbying for a shift to a playoff system. The BCS replied, saying that media contracts have been signed through 2011.
Last week, the BCS signed a contract with ESPN to televise the primary bowl games through 2015. Unfortunately, it seems that even the power of the Executive Branch couldn’t sway the opinions of the media giants.
However, this bold action by Obama could signify his passion for cleaning up the state of sports in America. Baseball is riddled with performance-enhancing drug abuse, football players find themselves behind bars too often and inside gambling could crumble faith in professional sports.
Democrat or Republican, universal health care or not, a leader who cares about the success of sports in the U.S. would garner much public approval.
It may be one of the few things that brings the country together in this time of great volatility.
Robert Moehle is a junior in Parks College.