If there's a silent majority of lawmakers on the other side, "it's only silent as long as the issue is just a bunch of noise," Roberts said. "If a bill actually got some traction, you can bet that (Texas coach) Mack Brown would call the Texas senators, and (Alabama coach) Nick Saban would call the Alabama senators. There's no traction in Congress for doing anything about the BCS."

Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, for example, told The Associated Press that while he supports a playoff system, "the one caveat is I have (a New York school) Syracuse, which benefits from the funding situation because the Big East gets in. You'd have to preserve that."

Barton insisted in a telephone interview that there's a good chance his bill will pass the House this year.

"The key is finding a place on the agenda" in a year crowded with high-profile issues, he said. "We'll keep plugging away."

Hatch, who held a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights last month, has focused more on getting the Justice Department to investigate the BCS for antitrust violations. He told the AP he's working on letters to both the department and Obama making that case.

"Like I've said in the past, I'm not real anxious to get the government involved in regulating college football, but those who have the power to fix the system should do so — and they should do so voluntarily," Hatch said. "The BCS people don't appear too willing to consider any alternatives."

He said the Justice Department should look into the matter and report back to Congress either way — even if it determines there is no antitrust violation.

"I think this is a big enough issue," Hatch said. "People try to pass this off as some itty-bitty issue. Hey, it involves hundreds of millions of dollars, it involves unfairness, mistreatment."

The Justice Department declined to say whether it would investigate the BCS.

Stephen Ross, director of the Penn State Institute for Sports Law, Policy and Research, and a former lawyer for the Justice Department's antitrust division, said the department will likely look into Hatch's request — but more as a senatorial courtesy than anything else.

He said the department generally takes the position that its resources be devoted on actions that can't be brought by a private party, and would be unlikely to launch a full-blown investigation into the BCS. Someone other than the department could bring a lawsuit challenging the BCS.

Congress has given the issue a high-profile look this year with a pair of media-generating hearings, but it also held them in the past — including a couple in 2003 that didn't lead to any legislative remedy.

That year, the House and Senate Judiciary Committees both held hearings — the latter one requested by Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, now vice president.

"What about the teams that aren't in these conferences and the fans that aren't in these conferences?" he asked at the time. "It looks un-American. It really does. It looks not fair. It looks like a rigged deal."

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