College Football’s BCS Is Indecisive on New Postseason Format

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By BEN STRAUSS
Published: June 13, 2012

CHICAGO — The details of what a new college football postseason format would look like were still fuzzy after Bowl Championship Series officials met at a hotel here Tuesday night and Wednesday. The sense of inevitability that change was coming, though, remained.

“There are a lot of thing still on the table,” said Bill Hancock, the B.C.S. executive director. “The status quo is not on the table.”

The 11 Football Bowl Subdivision conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director, Jack Swarbrick, stuck mostly to platitudes about general progress and the collegial nature of the meetings It is clear that the commissioners will not make a single recommendation to the presidential oversight committee—made up of 12 university presidents from around the country — which will ultimately decide what college football’s playoff format will look like.

“We will present them options,” Hancock said. “It’s important to remember that this is their decision.”

Some version of a four-team playoff also received more attention than the plus-one possibility, where two teams would be selected to play for national championship after all the bowl games.

“That’s where we’ve spent a lot of time, talking about those possibilities,” John Swofford, the commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, said of the four-team format.

“I’ve always been happy with the four-team playoff,” said Mike Slive, the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference.

Among the other questions being wrangled with are the selection process and the criteria for the four teams, like whether conference champions will receive priority. Where the games will be and how revenue will be shared among conferences are also being discussed.

The commissioners will meet again next week in Chicago, in conjunction with the Conference Commissioners Association and the oversight committee will meet June 26 in Washington.

Hancock pointed to a new television deal when asked about the timeline he was working under. The B.C.S. can begin negotiations for its broadcast rights on Sept. 1. The contract would begin in the 2014 season, when the new postseason format would take effect.

“The goal here is to develop a package that can be taken into the television market,” Hancock said.

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