NEW YORK ? BCS executive director Bill Hancock met with 10 officials from the Department of Justice's antitrust division for 90 minutes to explain how the Bowl Championship Series works.
Hancock said the tone of the meeting was friendly and that justice officials asked about how the BCS operates, how teams qualify to play in college football's five most lucrative bowl games, and its finances and history.
"I went into the meeting very confident that the BCS does not break the law and I came out of it confident that we explained what we do and why the BCS doesn't pose any antitrust concerns," he told the AP in a phone interview.
The Justice Department initially raised its concerns with the NCAA about major college football's postseason system, asking why there wasn't a playoff. The department said previously there were "serious questions" about whether the BCS complies with antitrust laws.
NCAA President Mark Emmert directed the department to the BCS. So the DOJ asked for a meeting with BCS officials.
Hancock said he brought two attorneys to the meeting and that he came away from it with no inclination about whether he would be hearing from the Department of Justice again.
Critics and playoff proponents, such as those who formed Playoff PAC, have urged the department to investigate the BCS because they contend it unfairly gives some schools preferential access to the title game and lucrative, top-tier postseason games.
Hancock and other BCS supporters insist the system has benefited all schools that play college football.
Under the BCS, the champions of six conferences have automatic bids to play in top-tier bowl games; the other five conferences don't.
But Hancock said the BCS, which was established in 1998, has improved access to such bowls for those other five conferences.
Hancock said he told the Department of Justice that Utah's Sugar Bowl appearance after the 2008 regular season earned the Mountain West Conference $9.8 million.
"And if there had not been a BCS, Utah would have been in the Las Vegas Bowl ... and that payout was about $900,000.
"To be able to talk about that type of benefit was an opportunity that I was looking forward to. An opportunity I was happy to get."
The BCS has also provided a guaranteed No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup to end the season, something that rarely happened in the old bowl system. But critics say the way the BCS decides which teams play for the national championship is flawed.
Even if there is no federal investigation, the BCS is already under fire from at least one state. The attorney general of Utah, Mark Shurtleff, has said he plans to file an antitrust lawsuit against the BCS.
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Follow Ralph D. Russo at http://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP
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