Collge Football: Let the playoff talk begin for BCS
HOLLYWOOD, Fla.—After getting the easy stuff out of the way, BCS officials will start tackling he tougher issues on the second of three days of meetings in balmy South Florida.
Playoff talk, anyone?
The Bowl Championships Series intends to explore a format change to the so-called plus-one model, which would match the top four teams against each other in bowl games and the winners in the national title game a week later.
The 11 conference commissioners, along with a committee of athletic directors, will meet with bowl and television partners on Tuesday and the plus-one will be among the topics.
"The idea is that leading up to that third day, the commissioners have had the benefit of meeting with the athletic directors, that the athletic directors have had the opportunity to give their advice and input to the commissioners, and that both groups have heard from both Fox and ABC/ESPN, as well as the four bowls," Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner and BCS coordinator John Swofford told reporters Monday, after the first day of meetings at an ocean-side resort wrapped up. ABC and ESPN are owned by The Walt Disney Co.
Come Wednesday, the plus-one goes to the top of the agenda for the commissioners. At that time, Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive plans to present a plan to seed the top four teams in the country heading into the major bowls and have No. 1 play No. 4 and 2 play 3.
"We'll have a pretty specific discussion about that," Swofford said. "Up to this point, a lot of it, in some circles, has been somewhat conceptual. At some point, it needs to be a reasonably specific discussion and the potential ramifications of what that might be. We'll get there while we're here."
The chances of the BCS making such a drastic change before the fall -- when negotiations will begin with Fox on another television deal -- and implementing it when the new TV contract kicks in 2011 seem slim.
The BCS and Fox are halfway through a $320 deal for rights to the Fiesta, Sugar and Orange bowls, along with three national championships. Fox is owned by News Corp.
Any new format would have to work around the Rose Bowl's contract with ABC, the Pac-10 and the Big Ten, which runs through the January 2014 game. In a scheme governed by contracts, that's a hefty roadblock to overcome.
"That contract and that agreement is to be respected by this full body, and I think everyone understands that," Swofford said. "And that's a factor in the deliberations, and where those deliberations may lead us.
"With that said, there may well be other issues there as well. I don't think it's fair to say that that's the lone issue in terms of what the model and the format is the next cycle."
Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen have said they would oppose a plus-one. No other conference has publicly supported a plus-one. Slive and the other commissioners have only pledged to give it a serious look and talk about it as a group.
"I continue to sense a certain comfort level, if you will, with the current status of things with the BCS," Swofford said. "I think it's been a pretty stable few years."
On Monday, the BCS voted for the status quo. Swofford announced that the formula used to rank teams will remain the same this season.
The BCS will retain the same six computer ratings and will use the Harris Poll for the next two years. The Harris and coaches' polls will still account for two-thirds of a team's BCS average, with the computers accounting for the other third.
"The formula itself, in the early years of the BCS, it seemed like almost annually we were tweaking that in some way," Swofford said. "That's stabilized in large measure and seems to be reasonably effective."
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