The NCAA News - News and Features

April 28, 1997

Antitrust hearing on bowl alliance scheduled for May 22

The Antitrust Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has agreed to conduct a hearing on allegations of antitrust violations by the college bowl alliance.

The hearing is set for May 22.

Acting on a request by senators from Kentucky, Utah and Wyoming, Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, subcommittee chair, scheduled the hearing to examine antitrust implications of the alliance of the major college bowls.

"It is clear that you have raised an important issue worth serious investigation," DeWine said in a letter notifying Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, of the hearing.

In a letter dated April 11, Sens. McConnell; Robert F. Bennett, R-Utah; Craig Thomas, R-Wyoming; and Michael B. Enzi, R-Wyoming, asked the Judiciary Committee to conduct a hearing.

The senators said a hearing would shed light on the purpose and effect of the bowl agreements.

"There is substantial evidence that the most powerful bowls and the most powerful conferences have entered into horizontal agreements to allocate the multimillion dollar bowl market among themselves and to engage in a group boycott of non-alliance teams and bowls," the senators wrote April 11 in requesting the hearing.

"The alliance lock on college football power has been strengthened recently and will soon be renamed the 'Super Alliance.' The Rose Bowl is set to join the alliance, which will guarantee the Big Ten and Pac-10 Conferences automatic berths in the alliance bowls."

The senators said they are concerned specifically that the alliance agreements preclude nonalliance teams from participating in the most significant and lucrative alliance bowls, even when nonalliance teams have a better record and a better ranking than alliance teams.

During the 1996 football season, Brigham Young University and the University of Wyoming, both members of the nonalliance Western Athletic Conference, met the alliance criteria for at-large selections. However, neither team was offered a berth in an alliance bowl.

A subcommittee staff member said witnesses at the hearing will include college coaches, conference officials and antitrust experts.

In March, the same group of senators asked the U. S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the antitrust implications of the bowl alliance.