BCS Playoff system

WASHINGTON – The long, slow march toward a major college football playoff is over. It has been approved.


Gerald Herbert, AP
Conference commissioners met with an oversight committee of university presidents and chancellors in Washington Tuesday afternoon to approve a four-team national playoff plan, consisting of two semifinal games in bowls and a national championship game that will be put up for bid.

Conference commissioners met with an oversight committee of university presidents and chancellors in Washington Tuesday afternoon to approve a four-team national playoff plan, consisting of two semifinal games in bowls and a national championship game that will be put up for bid.


Conference commissioners met with an oversight committee of university presidents and chancellors here Tuesday to approve the four-team seeded playoff, consisting of two semifinal games in bowls and a national championship game that will be put up for bid.
Commissioners presented the plan for 30 minutes then took questions from the presidents, who then deliberated for about three hours before announcing their decision.

"A four-team playoff doesn't go too far," said Virginia Tech President Charles Steger, chair of the presidential oversight committee. "It goes just the right amount."
The 14-year reign of the Bowl Championship Series— and the persistent criticism that accompanied it — is finally near its end. The new deal will go for 12 years.
"This was timely, had to be done," former Big 12 interim commissioner Chuck Neinas said before Tuesday's meetings began. "(It was in) response to the public, response to the interest in college football. The BCS has done a great deal in helping promote college football, and there's a general feeling we need to do something better to determine a national champion."
The presidents also endorsed the concept of the semifinals rotating among six bowls.
"We do not know the rotation yet," said BCS executive director Bill Hancock. "That's still to be determined."
And they endorsed the idea of a selection committee for the playoff teams, which would end the combination of computer and human polls that have been lightening rods for criticism since the BCS began.
The committee will rank playoff teams based on: won-loss record, strength of schedule, head-to-head and if a team is conference champion.
"I think generally, each conference will be represented," Hancock said of the selection committee. "There's a lot of work to be done on that. I think a model will be the NCAA (basketball) selection committee. We would be well-served to use that as a model.
"I think strength of schedule is going to be a very important part of this. Who did you play? Where did you play them? How did you do? I think you are going to have to play a good schedule in order to make it into a playoff."
Jeff Sagarin, who does computer rankings for USA TODAY Sports and has been part of the BCS formula since the beginning, argues that strength of schedule already exists.
"The media and commissioners are talking about needing to bring back schedule strength into the mix," he said earlier this week. "Well, it's in the very DNA of any competent computer program because the basic idea of every such program is conceptually: RATING = ACHIEVEMENT (W-L, scoring margin, etc) + SCHEDULE STRENGTH (opponents, game locations)."
Current BCS contracts run through the 2013 season, so the playoff would go into effect after the 2014 season.
Still to be decided: the name of new event, the composition of and procedures for the selection committee and the revenue-sharing formula. A new TV deal will be negotiated, as well.
According to the BCS release, the semifinal games will be New Year's Eve or New Year's Day with the title game roughly a week afterward depending on the calendar. The idea is to create a "Championship Monday."
"I'm glad to see it, quite frankly," said former Georgia coach and athletic director Vince Dooley at the national athletic directors convention in Dallas. "It's something that needs to be done. The BCS has had, I think, too much controversy. You can always have some controversy, but this was a lot of controversy - Auburn being a classic example (finishing unbeaten and shut out of the national championship game in 2004). I think this will help to solve a lot of it, and also be productive economically to a lot of schools."
Dooley was part of the NCAA's last serious look at a playoff, in the mid-1990s, and a member a special committee that weighed the issue and decided in 1994 that there wasn't enough support to recommend a postseason tournament. This came after then-NCAA head Dick Schultz called for a playoff at the NCAA convention.
Dooley likes the idea of four teams but worries pressure will come to expand.
"I'm hoping it'll never move beyond (four)," he said. "That's why I was in favor of a plus-one (in the '90s); I thought that was the best way (to go) and it wouldn't move beyond that. Four is a little more dangerous in that respect, and it could happen. But I hope it never does. Because then, where do you go from there?

DaTruRochin wrote:Oh goodie, now the bet student athletes of the best programs get 2 several extra weeks to pick up minor concussions and further symptoms of chronic traumatic ecephalopathy all for our corporate financial gain, er, I mean the fans!!

I love "amateur" athletics!!

DoubleDipper wrote:pilotram -- how are you doing? Internet, tv, and newspaper reports paint a pretty bleak picture in your area. Thinking of you and praying for the best of outcomes. (I'm posting this instead of messaging you because I'm sure others are concerned too).

RipCityPilot wrote:Can I ask what makes this playoff more dangerous than a high school football playoff? That increases the risk for injury and takes students out of the classroom, but nobody complains about that.

pilotram wrote:But ESPN needs the extra weeks to hype up the bowl games.