Congress certainly has more pressing business than calling the signals for college football on what makes a legit championship. But members who showed up for a House hearing last Friday apparently had nothing better to do than kick around the setup of postseason bowl games.

"It's like communism," fumed Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, insisting the Bowl Championship Series is unworkable. His bill would prohibit promoting, marketing or advertising any postseason football game as a national championship game unless it's the culmination of a playoff system. But what's Washington got to do with it? Football is big business, he said, and the system is unfair to smaller schools.

Television networks do pay big bucks to broadcast bowl games — no doubt one reason the system endures. And there may be a better way to crown a champion than the current polls and computer rankings. But on the long list of issues vying for congressional attention, bowl games surely rank somewhere near the very bottom.