WASHINGTON — Taking aim at a BCS system he said "consistently misfires," a member of Congress planned to introduce legislation Wednesday that would force college football to adopt a playoff to determine the national champion.

Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, didn't specify what sort of playoff he wants — only that the BCS should go.

"In some years the sport's national championship winner was left unsettled, and at least one school was left out of the many millions of dollars in revenue that accompany the title," Barton said in a statement released ahead of the bill's introduction. "Despite repeated efforts to improve the system, the controversy rages on."

He said the bill — being co-sponsored by Reps. Bobby Rush, an Illinois Democrat, and Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican — "will prohibit the marketing, promotion, and advertising of a postseason game as a 'national championship' football game, unless it is the result of a playoff system. Violations of the prohibition will be treated as violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act as an unfair or deceptive act or practice."

The BCS was created in 1998 by the six most powerful conferences. Since then, the system has been tweaked to make it easier for teams from smaller conferences to qualify for the top games. The sites for the four BCS bowls — the Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta — take turns hosting a championship game between the top two teams in the BCS standings, which are based on two human polls and six computer ratings.

This season, Florida (12-1) and Oklahoma (12-1) will meet in the BCS title game Jan. 8 in Miami.

Barton cited Southern California in 2003 and undefeated Auburn in 2004 as examples of worthy teams left out of the BCS national championship game. This season, Texas, which also has only one loss, beat Oklahoma but was left out of the "title" game because the BCS rankings put Oklahoma ahead of the Longhorns.

"This year, we again have two teams with one loss each playing for the 'championship,' while two undefeated teams and four additional teams with only one loss will play in bowl games, but none can become 'champion,"' he said.

When an Energy and Commerce subcommittee held a hearing about the BCS in 2005, lawmakers said they weren't going to pursue legislation.

"The BCS method of determining who is No. 1 consistently misfires," Barton said Wednesday. "Simply exposing the flaws and subjecting them to discussion ... hasn't led to improvement by those who run the system."

Last month, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie and some of his colleagues in the U.S. House wrote President-elect Barack Obama, informing him of their pending legislation calling for a federal investigation of the Bowl Championship Series for illegally restraining trade, which deprives non-BCS schools of postseason revenue.

Obama said in a "60 Minutes" interview that he backed creating a college football playoff system instead of the BCS selection process, which is based on computer rankings and polls of coaches and media representatives.

"I don't know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this," said Obama in the interview. "So, I'm gonna throw my weight around a little bit. I think it's the right thing to do."

On the eve of his convincing Election Day victory, Obama - perhaps sensing a winning issue - said on "Monday Night Football" that he thought it was time "that we had playoffs in college football" rather than computer rankings.

The three lawmakers - U.S. Reps. Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i; Mike Simpson, R-Idaho; and Jim Matheson, D-Utah - said the BCS is rigged against the 53 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A) universities that are not members of the six largest conferences, potentially costing them millions annually and frustrating fans over which team is the national champion.

A Justice Department investigation of the BCS is "the best way for the federal government to take action to end this illegal system," the lawmakers' letter said. "With the support of the U.S. Department of Justice, we believe the BCS system could be replaced with a fair, inclusive playoff system."

The lawmakers' resolution filed in April is still before the House Judiciary Committee and Education and Labor Committee, which haven't taken any action. They argue that the process of selecting a college football national champion restricts the opportunity to compete for the title in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

It also limits access to more than $185 million in postseason revenue to the 66 teams in the BCS conferences and the University of Notre Dame, which is independent. The other teams received $32 million in postseason revenue, the lawmakers said.

The BCS conferences include the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific 10 and Southeastern conferences. Each of those six conferences is assured an automatic annual berth in a BCS bowl game - Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and the National Championship Game.

The Honolulu Advertiser contributed to this report