BCS Commissioners reach consensus on four-team College Football Playoff

By Kevin Kelley -
The Coaches' Trophy
The Coaches’ Trophy (Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE)

Commissioners of the BCS conferences announced today that they have reached a consensus for a four-team college football playoff. Their proposal will be presented to the Presidential Oversight Committee on Tuesday in Washington, DC.

Details of the four-team playoff, including how the teams will be selected and whether there will be a requirement for teams to win their conference championship, were ironed out in a series of meetings.

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney would not reveal how the teams will be seeded or selected, but did say that the presidents will make the final decision. However, it was revealed that the semifinal games will be worked into the existing bowls and the national championship game will be bid out on a yearly basis like the Super Bowl.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive said he was “delighted, very pleased” with the playoff format that was agreed upon. The new format will begin after the conclusion of the 2014 regular-season.

In a series of tweets shortly after the announcement this evening, Brett McMurphy of CBS Sports revealed a few possible details of the playoff:

While the four-team playoff format will likely still have its detractors, any sort of playoff is the right step forward for college football. We would still like to see an 8-team or even a 16-team college football playoff.

At any rate, we should know more details about the playoff plan on Tuesday after it is presented to the presidents. However, the presidents are not expected to approve a playoff plan until July at the earliest.

Comments (19)

If you want to have these stupid playoff brackets at least have a lot of teams like college basketball

As long as every one gets a more fair chance than before. Like the SEC or Big 12 getting favorited is getting old. This better be fair, but if the SEC commissioner is very pleased, that doesn’t sound too good in my opinion.

A four-team playoff eliminates many of the arguments. However, Utah and Boise State went undefeated twice each in a 6 year period and they were ranked 6 or lower all four times. They never reached the top 4 until AFTER their BCS victories. If an undefeated team in the top 10 isn’t part of the playoff, then we haven’t fixed anything. Ranking TCU and Utah #2 AFTER they went undefeated was a travesty.

I’m a fan of the SEC. I know Slive took care of the SEC. I hope they got rid of that ridiculous computer programming by some knot-head dude out in Oklahoma and who knows where. I still do not like Selection
Committees. People are biased, it’s ingrained. Conference Champions, I wish the whole thing was decided on the field.

Any system is biased. Even if you just do conference champs, someone has to decide which conference champs are better than the other conference champs.

Eight teams would be much better than four, and 16 (if they could figure out how) would be better than eight.

Yes, hopefully at least 3 conference champions, I reckon I can live with one wildcard . As one of the posters said decide it on the field by winning your conference, not some beauty contest for ones that don’t even win their division and slip in.

First time that the committee leaves out the #3 ranked team in favor of the #5 team everyone is going to be up in arms. Then we will get a 8-team field.

the SEC hate is beautiful.

beat one of them in the tile game and stop crying

Oregon tried….failed
Oklahoma tried…failed
Ohio State tried twice….failed
Texas…you guessed it, failed

It took an SEC teams to beat and SEC team.

They mentioned a strength of schedule component so I hope my wish comes true as no more D1-AA games as teams will have to play better non conference schedules. I say allow teams to play one scrimmage with a D1-AA opponent where they get a decent payday so everyone wins.

I think the four team playoff can and will work, but in my opinion the playoffs really start with the opening weekend of the season. If you want a chance to be in the “4 team” playoff, win your conference or otherwise shut-up!

What a travesty,NCAA commissioner said it won’t be no longer know as
the BCS anymore,but the current contract of the BCS doesn’t end
until after the 2014 anymore,in any rate the commissioner is right,
maybe it shouldn’t be any longer known as the BCS it should be
the Bullshit Championship Playoff Series!

This whole 4-team playoff proposal didn’t fix anything,at
the end of the day,Boise State,Utah,and TCU did not get their
shots when they were undefeated then.About the SEC,I see some
bias fans of the respected SEC schools rebuttals favoring another
SEC school going against the conference champ based on theory
that nobody beating the SEC elites,well I come from SEC country
myself and I would say to you guys that it’s everybody getting a fair shot at the SEC,like Boise State,speaking of which defeated GEORGIA
this past season,otherwise I don’t know if we’re gonna know
if there isn’t football team that can level with the SEC if I
support the ‘Status quo’ like the last season.we would know if
Oklahoma State would have beat LSU,we would know if Boise State
would have beat Alabama because of this I’m sorry you guys I have
say this this continuing debacle of this college football system!!