Congress has many important things to do. It is a somewhat turbulent time for the country, with the economy down and wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And so, with so many critical things going on in the United States, our nation’s lawmakers sat down on Friday to discuss college football.

No, they weren’t just passing the time before the session started, shooting the breeze about how they couldn’t wait for the season to get started.

They took a sizable amount of time — and taxpayer’s dollars — discussing the Bowl Championship Series and a potential playoff in Division 1A football.

I only wish I was kidding about this. Apparently it’s popular nowadays for the federal government to meddle in sports.

First, they got involved in the Major League Baseball steroid witch hunt, and now they’re trying to force a college football playoff down everyone’s throat.

At least when it came to the steroid hearings, Congress was discussing something that is actually illegal. Taking even one minute to discuss something as trivial as a college football playoff makes a mockery of the entire governmental process.

Of course, the congressman who kicked up the most fuss about the whole thing was Rep. Joe Barton of Texas — you know, the state whose university was passed over by rival Oklahoma to play in the BCS Championship Game.

Barton has introduced legislation that would prevent the NCAA from calling a game a national championship unless it’s the outcome of a playoff.

He told BCS Coordinator John Swofford in Friday’s meeting, “If we don’t see some action in the next two months, on a voluntary switch to a playoff system, then you will see this bill move.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who, up until now, has had an exemplary service record, is also raising cane about a playoff.

How ironic that Utah’s namesake university was also not chosen to compete in the BCS title game, despite its undefeated record.

Funny, I don’t see senators and congressmen from Florida, Oklahoma or Louisiana calling for a playoff.

Perhaps that’s because Florida and LSU have won multiple national championships in the past five years, and Oklahoma has played in the title game four times this decade, including a national championship in 2000.

But perhaps the single worst sentence in the article about Friday’s BCS hearing was this one.

“Congress is grappling with a crowded agenda of budgets, health care overhaul and climate change, and though President Obama favors a playoff, he hasn’t made it a legislative priority.”

Just the fact that the reporter felt it necessary to say that the President hasn’t yet made a college football playoff a priority when the country is facing as many obstacles as it is makes me cry a little inside.

Can the senators please focus on what actually matters instead of trying to dictate a game that 18- to 22-year-olds play?

Me, and 304 million other Americans would appreciate it.