Law Commons^™

Antitrust & The Bowl Championship Series, Nathaniel Grow

Nathaniel Grow

This Article analyzes the potential antitrust liability of the Bowl Championship Series (“BCS”), college football’s current system for selecting the participants of both the national championship game as well as the other most desirable post-season bowl games. The BCS has recently been the subject of increasing attack from both politicians and law enforcement officials, who allege that the system constitutes an illegal restraint of trade due to its preferential treatment of universities from certain traditionally stronger conferences, at the expense of teams from other, historically less competitive conferences. Meanwhile, the academic literature considering the antitrust status of the BCS is …