The headline is hardly more than a footnote in the list of current college football news on most of the national sports Web sites:

"Senate to hold hearing on BCS antitrust issues."

On July 7, the head honchos of the Bowl Championship Series will once again be dragged in front of a senate committee - spearheaded by Utah's own Senator Orrin Hatch - to investigate whether the BCS violates antitrust legislation.

Once again, BCS coordinator John Swofford will be raked over the coals by a few members of the committee that care enough to take a couple of hours to grandstand in support of something most people want: a true national championship.

But the end result will probably be a lot of fireworks and smoke with nothing of any real substance.

And the country's college football fans - myself included - will grind their teeth in frustration.

The hope I hold onto is a firm belief that the tyrannical and corrupt rule of a select few in the BCS will come to an end - eventually.

That's right. No matter who tries to say otherwise, eventually a champion will be decided on the field and not simply by which team has the best public relations team or the most friends amongst their peers.

Things are just changing too quickly in this world for the desires of 63 percent of fans - according to a Seton Hall poll last fall - to be ignored forever.

I believe one of four things has to happen. Here's my list, starting with the least likely:

4. Congress forces a playoff on college football.

This is a nice dream, but one that doesn't hold very much clout in my book. Legislators routinely get hammered for wasting their "valuable" time on college football (as if they don't waste their time on plenty of other issues that affect even fewer people) and thus I doubt anything will ever come through this channel.

3. Two non-traditional teams from relatively weak conferences go undefeated and are selected to play in the title game over one- or two-loss champions from the power leagues.

It might've happened a couple of years ago when Boston College and South Florida briefly held the top two positions in the BCS standings.

I believe the fallout from a matchup between undefeated Rutgers and North Carolina State in the national title game while USC, Florida, Ohio State and Texas (all with one or two defeats but from better conferences) all have to watch at home would make a change inevitable.

A perfect storm could make this happen - but unfortunately perfect storms are extremely rare, so I place this low on my list.

2. All of the old guard retires - or dies.

The presidents and conference commissioners that are so vehemently defending an outdated and silly system of exhibition games are part of a shrinking group. Their time is past and eventually they will see the writing on the wall.

A younger generation that grew up irritated with the constant and ineffective tweeking of the BCS system will be more open to newer ideas and will find a way to hammer out a playoff.

1. College football fans from across the country band together and boycott the BCS games.

You want something to change? Hit it where it hurts - in the pocketbook.

If those 63 percent of fans got together and decided not to watch any of the BCS games (except the one their home team was involved in, if applicable), it would make ratings plummet.

Do it two years in a row and the facillitators of the current absurdity would be the ones forcing things to change. The TV boys - the ones at ABC/ESPN who paid $125 million annually for the rights to broadcast the games - would be hearing it from their advertisers and become the ones clamoring for a playoff.

When the people with the cash talk, everyone listens.

It's ironic that they aren't already, since conservative estimates indicate that a playoff would raise significantly more money for the TV stations than the current system does.

The other irony of a fan boycott is that very few of the games have been worth watching anyway. Only 15 of the 47 BCS games (32 percent) have been decided by a touchdown or less and many have been between teams that appeared not to care.

At least in a playoff, everyone will be playing like their shot at a national title depended on it.

It's very doable. I think there are some simple ideas that would overcome every argument against a playoff that I've ever heard. I'll share my playoff plan as we get closer to the college football season.

For now, however, the Senate committee will bluster and rant for the cameras, the BCS bigwigs will look as ridiculous as always and the country will continue to allow arguably its greatest athletic competition to be the laughingstock of the sports world.

That's how it will go until fans - or time - finally changes the status quo and players instead of pollsters crown a true national champion.

∫ Jared Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@heraldextra.com.

Related

• Sen. Hatch calls for BCS antitrust investigation
• MWC commissioner: BCS changes could take 5 years