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SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff will hold his main fundraising event of the year Tuesday. It will have a BCS theme.
An invitation on Facebook says Shurtleff, along with speaker Kyle Whittingham, will "let you know that we're not gonna take it."
It costs $300 to get in the door. The money will go to Shurtleff's political action committee. A campaign manager for Shurtleff tells the Salt Lake Tribune he's confident the event will raise six figures.
Critics have pointed out that it could be a conflict of interest to raise money on the topic while also engaged in legal action.
"Can I not talk about mortgage fraud at one of these or maybe ID theft because I might have to prosecute somebody," Shurtleff told Doug Wright on KSL Newsradio. "It really is a ridiculous assertion."
Shurtleff tells the Salt Lake Tribune his office doesn't have an active investigation into the BCS, but he's considering one.
Shurtleff points out that the money is not for a future campaign of his, but rather his political action group. By law, Shurtleff says, "That money cannot be used for a federal race should I get in to a federal race."
On the Doug Wright Show on Jan. 6, Shurtleff aired his intentions. He said, "The BCS schools can attract the contracts to air their games on television, they can build bigger stadiums and workout facilities, and attract perhaps the higher ranked athletes. It is fundamentally a financial system that needs to be fixed."
A decade ago the BCS was supposed to end the debate and decide a true national champion, but that hasn't happened.
Shurtleff will work with his investigators and see if the BCS violates the Sherman Antitrust Act. He said, "If there's an artificial situation and a monopoly, where its anti-competitive effects are stronger than its pro-competitive effects, then you've got a problem there."
The conferences with automatic access to the five BCS games are the Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, ACC and Pac-10.
The call for change comes after a season in which MWC champion Utah was the only unbeaten major team but was never seriously in the running to play in the BCS title game. Florida beat Oklahoma for the championship, while the Utes finished No. 2 after beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
Shurtleff is considering running against Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, but hasn't announced his plans.
This story compiled with contributions from Andrew Adams and
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