Swine flu is cropping up all over the country. Taliban militants are threatening the stability of nuclear-armed Pakistan. Chrysler is filing for bankruptcy and many other American businesses — as well as state governments — are struggling to deal with the current economic crisis.

So what issue was a subcommittee of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee conducting hearings on Friday? The need for a college football playoff system.

Two U.S. congressman — Republican Joe Barton from Texas and Democrat Bobby Rush of Illinois — have co-sponsored a bill that would prohibit the NCAA from saying a football game is being played for the national championship unless that game results from a playoff system. Not to be outdone, Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch also has put the Bowl Championship Series system on the agenda of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee.

At Friday’s hearing, members of Congress decried the BCS bowl system as unfair and capricious. One college conference commissioner called the money distribution system “grossly inequitable.” A coordinator of the BCS argued, however, that a playoff system would threaten the existence of celebrated college bowl games, an outcome that apparently would threaten the very fabric of American society.

Maybe a bit of levity is good for the democratic process, but it’s hard to understand why the U.S. Congress is involved in this issue. President Obama may have gotten it started when he spoke in favor of a playoff system during a “60 Minutes” interview and said somewhat jokingly that “I’m going to throw my weight around a little bit.”

Obama’s comment seems to have given permission to members of Congress to jump into a battle they already were eager to join. Maybe it takes an act of Congress to take on a championship system that ESPN has agreed to pay $125 million a year to broadcast, but with all the problems currently facing the nation, it certainly seems that our lawmakers would have more important issues to discuss.