Washington

During a hearing on Thursday, members of Congress had nothing positive to say about the Bowl Championship Series, which matches major-college football teams in lucrative bowl games every January.

Representatives on the House Judiciary Committee said they didn't want to legislate postseason football in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and they didn't discuss whether the bowl arrangement violates federal antitrust laws. But they criticized the way the series rewards institutions in the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific-10, and Southeastern Conferences and not colleges in the five other conferences in Division I-A.

"This friendly hearing is just to let you know that we're watching the Bowl Championship Series, because it's become so exclusive," said Rep. John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, during his opening remarks.

The BCS matches the champions from the six member conferences and two at-large teams -- one of which is often the University of Notre Dame -- in the Fiesta, Orange, Rose, and Sugar Bowls. One of those bowls each year is designated the national championship, matching the top two teams selected by a complicated formula. The other three games match remaining league titlists and other members of the six conferences. A team from outside the six could theoretically play its way in, but in practical terms doing so would be nearly impossible.

The committee's chairman, Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Republican of Wisconsin, had particularly harsh words for the University of Miami's president, Donna E. Shalala, who was not present. Rep. Sensenbrenner said that he had asked Ms. Shalala, a former chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, to testify about Miami's recent decision to join the ACC, but that she had declined on the advice of lawyers.

Calling her "the biggest player in college football," Mr. Sensenbrenner said that he intended "for this committee to receive Dr. Shalala's testimony, [given] willingly or not."

Testifying before the committee were Myles Brand, the NCAA's president; James E. Delany, commissioner of the Big Ten; Scott S. Cowen, president of Tulane University; and Steve Young, the former Brigham Young University and San Francisco 49ers quarterback.

Mr. Brand is to serve as a facilitator next week during a meeting in Chicago of presidents from the six Bowl Championship Series conferences with chief executives from other Division I-A colleges. Mr. Cowen is the leader of a coalition of presidents from the excluded colleges.

He and Mr. Young told the committee that the BCS, by keeping millions of dollars that come from the bowl games largely within the six member conferences, had created disparities that were hurting colleges outside the arrangement, like BYU and Tulane. Colleges receiving a share of the nearly $100-million in annual revenue from the games can build facilities and pay huge salaries that non-BCS colleges cannot afford, luring recruits, coaches, and fans.

Mr. Delany said that the revenue and competitive gaps have existed for much longer than the championship series.

"There's been way too much credit given to the BCS for creating disparities between football programs," he said. "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 NCAA cannot set policy for postseason football, Mr. Brand told the committee. However, he said, he does not personally favor replacing the bowl games with a playoff. That would destroy the "drama and excitement" that come with the holiday-season games, he said.

Rep. Anthony D. Weiner, Democrat of New York, pointed out that, for example, the champions of the Western Athletic Conference, the Mountain West Conference, and Conference USA could all go through their seasons undefeated, earn rankings of 1, 2, and 3 in the two major polls, and yet none of them would be invited to the championship game. Mr. Delany responded that the bowl series had already made a commitment to invite the top-ranked team, regardless of conference.

After the hearing, Mr. Cowen said that his group is considering filing an antitrust lawsuit against the BCS, accusing it of unfairly restricting access to the championship games, but only as a last resort. Lawyers for the bowl series said that the networks choose from the teams with the largest followings, all of which happen to be from the six elite leagues.

Following next week's meeting between BCS and non-BCS member presidents, a hearing in the Senate may be scheduled.