How Will Obama’s Supreme Court Nominee Affect ND Football?

In short, President Barack Obama’s decision to nominate Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court position left open in the wake of David Souter’s retirement will not affect Notre Dame football in the slightest. But it’s interesting to think about how it might. Ray Ratto explains.

Basically, BCS is at stake whenever a major court appointment is made. Or at least some people like to think it is. College football fans who clamor for the days when there is a legitimate playoff system instead of the BCS system (the vast majority) feel that if the political winds change in just the right direction, the issue could earn enough political weight to generate a mandate at a legal level. But in all likelihood the Bowl Championship System will never go on trial at a federal level. So regardless of what Sotomayor thinks about the NCAA and the BCS, the status quo is what we’ll get.

But thinking about the ways that politics affects sports is a fun exercise nonetheless. Barack Obama has called for an end to the Bowl System, but his nominated judge would seem to support the current BCS, based on her past sports-related decisions. Fun to think about, but in the end the chances of Notre Dame football being affected by Sotomayor are minuscule.

Posted in General on May 27, 2009

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