Washington, DC (My Sportsbook) - The Bowl Championship Series in college football came under fire on Thursday in the nation's capital, as the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing to discuss the problems involved in the process of selecting teams to play in the lucrative season-ending bowl games.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the chairman of the committee, was somewhat critical of the system, which was created before the 1998 season in an effort to have the top two teams play for the national championship.

"The current system that governs the Division I-A college football championship and other major post-season bowl matchups has led some to allege a violation of the antitrust laws," Sensenbrenner said.

"The purpose of today's hearing is not to impose a solution that will satisfy all of the BCS and non-BCS schools, nor to abolish college athletic conferences. Rather, it is to examine the application of the antitrust laws to college athletics, and to help identify ways to ensure that in the realm of college sports, merit prevails over money, fundamental fairness trumps the fundamentals of good marketing, hard work triumphs over hard cash, and that the noble aspirations of amateur athletes do not yield to the cold reality of corporate and university profits."

The BCS consists of the four biggest and most lucrative bowl games -- the Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta. Six of the eight BCS bowl slots are guaranteed to the conference winners of six specific conferences -- Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, Pac-10, ACC and Big East -- with two at-large berths.

There have been contentions that the structure of the BCS creates an unfair disparity between BCS and non-BCS institutions, as none of the non-BCS schools, with the exception of traditional power Notre Dame, has made an appearance in the BCS bowl games since the system began in 1998.

"There's been way too much credit given to the BCS for creating disparities between football programs," said Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany during a television interview before the hearing. "Those disparities have existed for 20 to 30 years. The BCS has existed for five. We've created a No. 1 vs. No. 2 game. To say the BCS created a disparity makes no sense to us. The bowls are more open than before and more revenue is being shared than ever before."

The projected revenue for the four 2004 BCS games is $90 million. An estimated $6 million of this will go to the 55 non-BCS schools, while over $80 million will go to the 62 BCS schools.

"This conglomeration of money and power is having a cascading impact far beyond major college football, as the de facto exclusion of non-BCS schools from major bowl games is resulting in those schools having lower athletic budgets, inferior athletic facilities and rising deficits," said Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.

However, proponents for the BCS contend the system is working, although it continually needs to be tweaked.

"How good did the old system work? In 1984, a BYU that finished No. 1 played a 6-5 Michigan team in the Holiday Bowl. Under the BCS system, they could have played a No. 2 team for the national championship," Delany said in a news conference after the hearing.

Last year an undefeated Ohio State of the Big Ten played an unbeaten Miami- Florida of the Big East in the Fiesta Bowl. Prior to the BCS, a meeting of those teams during the bowl season would not have been possible, as each conference champion had tie-ins with separate bowl games.

The two at-large berths in the BCS are open to any of the schools in major college football, but the system is weighted against all of the non-BCS members except Notre Dame, which has been included in the process.

An undefeated Tulane squad in 1998 could not gain entrance to the four major bowls because it finished only 11th in the BCS standings -- a complicated formula that takes into account the national poll rankings, computer rankings and strength of schedule.

Tulane president Scott Cowen founded an anti-BCS organization in an effort to level the playing field. Cowen's coalition and BCS representatives are slated to meet Monday in Chicago to discuss the future of the series.

The current BCS contract is set to expire after the 2005 season.

While small changes will likely occur, the non-BCS schools will still likely have a hard time breaking through the system.

The 1984 BYU team is the only non-BCS member to win a national championship since World War II and in the 20 years before the BCS, only one of the 160 teams to play in the four BCS bowls was from a non-BCS league.

"Teams from non-BCS conferences simply want a level playing field when it comes to competing to win a national title," testified former BYU and NFL quarterback Steve Young. "In soccer, basketball, baseball, tennis, golf, etc., equal access is granted. Not so in football."