Obama Favors a Playoff for NCAA Football. Who doesn't?

[pintofguinness14]

Actually both the NFL and MLB would violate the anti-trust laws (don't know about NBA one way or the other) if the law didn't have specific clauses exempting them from the law in whole (MLB) or in part (NFL). 

Not a lawyer here, but I assumed the same or similar exemptions already applied to the NCAA.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Not a lawyer here, but I assumed the same or similar exemptions already applied to the NCAA.

I am guessing they are quite different being one is a business and the other other a partially taxpayer supported entity.  Either way Congress can eliminate any exemptions that exist.

[pintofguinness14]

I am guessing they are quite different being one is a business and the other other a partially taxpayer supported entity.  Either way Congress can eliminate any exemptions that exist.

They won't. This issue is a joke.

[Dave Gray]

[half talking out of my ass, here]

I think that the NCAA and NFL are both legal monopolies.  I say this because I think I heard something one time about why college and pro games rarely (if ever) overlap.  ...The NFL only starts having Saturday games when the NCAA games are done, for example.  I think that's a legal decision, not a business one.

Anyway, all this stuff about congress getting involved I don't think will amount to much.

However, it may end up changing the NCAA to a playoff system, just by shining a light on the problem.  If the president and members of congress are discussing it, it causes a stir and things are more likely to get done internally.

I bet that the NCAA finishes its contract with the BCS and then goes in a new direction that involves some kind of playoff.

[NADS]

[half talking out of my ass, here]

I think that the NCAA and NFL are both legal monopolies.  I say this because I think I heard something one time about why college and pro games rarely (if ever) overlap.  ...The NFL only starts having Saturday games when the NCAA games are done, for example.  I think that's a legal decision, not a business one.

Anyway, all this stuff about congress getting involved I don't think will amount to much.

However, it may end up changing the NCAA to a playoff system, just by shining a light on the problem.  If the president and members of congress are discussing it, it causes a stir and things are more likely to get done internally.

I bet that the NCAA finishes its contract with the BCS and then goes in a new direction that involves some kind of playoff.

Call it goodwill.

[Spider-Dan]

You could call it goodwill... but you'd be wrong.

http://blog.mises.org/archives/004243.asp

If the antitrust laws applied to professional sports as they applied to other businesses, there would be no NFL as we know it today. For one thing, the league could not negotiate a national television contract, as that would constitute “collusion" on the part of individual clubs. For this reason, in 1961 Congress passed a statutory exemption to the Sherman Act that permitted professional sports leagues to negotiate television contracts.

But in 1966, Congress amended that exemption with respect to the NFL. By this time, the NFL had entered into a merger agreement with the American Football League. This merger would have violated the antitrust laws (the Super Bowl would therefore be “anti-competitive"), and so yet another exemption was needed. The National Collegiate Athletic Association was concerned, however, that the expanding professional league would move away from their traditional Sunday schedule to play games on Fridays or Saturdays, the traditional provinces of high school and college football. Indeed, by 1966 ABC had reportedly developed a proposal for “Friday Night Football" that would feature NFL teams.

Fortunately for the NCAA, a number of southern congressman were also concerned about the impact of the NFL on “amateur" football, so they attached an amendment that partially rolled back the 1961 broadcast exemption. That amendment, which remains law today, reads as follows:

    Section 1293-Intercollegiate and interscholastic football contest limitations

    The first sentence of section 1291 of this title shall not apply to any joint agreement described in such section which permits the telecasting of all or a substantial part of any professional football game on any Friday after six o'clock postmeridian or on any Saturday during the period beginning on the second Friday in September and ending on the second Saturday in December in any year from any telecasting station located within seventy-five miles of the game site of any intercollegiate or interscholastic football contest scheduled to be played on such a date if -

    (1) such intercollegiate football contest is between institutions of higher learning both of which confer degrees upon students following completion of sufficient credit hours to equal a four-year course, or

    (2) in the case of an interscholastic football contest, such contest is between secondary schools, both of which are accredited or certified under the laws of the State or States in which they are situated and offer courses continuing through the twelfth grade of the standard school curriculum, or the equivalent, and

    (3) such intercollegiate or interscholastic football contest and such game site were announced through publication in a newspaper of general circulation prior to August 1 of such year as being regularly scheduled for such day and place.

(Section 1291 refers to the 1961 exemption law.)

So as of today, if the NFL telecasts a game on Friday night or Saturday within 75 miles of any high school or college game—even games that are not themselves televised—the league opens itself up to an antitrust lawsuit for “restraint of trade." Presumably, the NFL obtained a waiver from every high school and college within 75 miles of Miami and Kansas City, but obtaining such consent nationally would be impractical.

[NADS]

My bag.