This week, a U.S. Senate panel will probe whether to restructure the college football championship system - a move that could increase cable television contracts already worth nearly half a billion dollars.

At the request of football fan Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Tuesday will examine whether the Bowl Championship Series, or BCS, violates antitrust laws in how it picks teams to compete and divvies up the revenue.

Under the current system, nearly half of all college football teams divide a portion of BCS revenues from television and sponsorship contracts. A much larger share, however, goes to teams from the six largest football conferences, including the PAC-10 and the Big East.

"This money goes to benefit some schools and create disadvantages for others," Hatch said in a statement Thursday.

Since its founding in 1998, the bowl system automatically qualifies the best team in each of the six biggest football conferences plus the University of Notre Dame. It uses computer rankings and polls to fill in the remaining slots - a system that critics argue can exclude some of the best teams from smaller conferences.

Last year's University of Utah Utes, the nation's only undefeated team, did not earn a spot in the national championship, but trounced legendary football powerhouse Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, 31-17.

Sports fans like to spar over whether the system truly pits the two best teams in the national championship. But both sides agree that transforming the current model into a playoff structure would likely send both television ratings and cable television contracts soaring.

Currently the two highest-ranked teams play in one national championship alongside four other bowl games, sponsored by companies including FedEx Corp. (FDX), Tostitos, a unit of PepsiCo Inc. (PEP) and Allstate Corp. (ALL).

Switching to a seven-game postseason where teams advance toward a national championship would boost ratings and likely jack up the $495 million contract that begins in January 2011 with Walt Disney Co.'s (DIS)ESPN, said Alan Fishel, an attorney representing the Mountain West Conference. This group has proposed a formal restructuring of the system. ESPN did not return multiple calls for comment.

"Instead of a Tostitos bowl being a consolation game three out of every four years, it would be a quarterfinal every year," Fishel said. "The ratings would go way up for that kind of event. People care about a national championship."

Even proponents of the current system agree that playoffs could generate heftier cable contracts.

"There's a strong belief that there's money being left on the table," said Bill Hancock, the bowl system's administrator and its only full-time employee. He predicted that bigger post-season contracts would drain funds from the regular season.

Neal Pilson, former president of CBS sports and now president of Pilson Communications, said simply adding playoff games without disturbing the timing of the bowls in early January would be unlikely to cut into regular season ratings.

Colleges within the six major conferences already reap major revenues. In the 2006-07 football season, the University of Wisconsin made $1.95 million from participating in bowl games, according to budget documents. Coaches that lead their team to a bowl game are rewarded accordingly.

University of Michigan head football coach Richard Rodriguez made a base salary of $300,000 last season, but was eligible for a $200,000 bonus if his team made it into a BCS game, according to a copy of his contract obtained under a public records request. Kirk Ferentz, head coach of the University of Iowa team, stood to earn a $175,000 bonus for doing the same. Ferentz's reward for graduating over 70% of his players is $75,000.

Outsized bowl-game bonuses are possible because the contests themselves are so lucrative. The conferences also sign contracts with title sponsors like Tostitos, while individual universities ink deals with sportswear companies.

"The apparel in football is huge because unlike basketball, which is pretty much continuous motion, there's downtime in football," said Eric Wright, vice president of research at Joyce Julius, a research firm that tracks corporate sponsorships.

During last year's 22 bowl games, including the top five, Nike Inc.'s (NKE) logo was in clear focus for over six hours of television, while Under Armour Inc. (UA) and Adidas AG (ADDY) both enjoyed over an hour, according to Joyce Julius data.

"It's more exposure than anything short of a NASCAR broadcast," Wright said.

-By Kristina Peterson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6619; Kristina.peterson@dowjones.com