By Rachel Bachman
Leaders of the Bowl Championship Series will present to their constituents the option of a four-team college football playoff beginning in 2015, BCS executive director Bill Hancock said Thursday afternoon.
- Associated Press
- Bowl Championship Series executive director Bill Hancock
Hancock said commissioners from the BCS conferences will present to conference constituents two to seven options for a four-team playoff. Those options include holding semifinals at campus sites, as well as neutral-site games. A championship game will be held at a neutral site, either an existing bowl or a site that bids in advance to host the game.
Hancock acknowledged that if a four-team playoff is approved by the 11 participating conferences and the BCS’s presidential oversight committee, it will be a “seismic event.” Major-college football never has had a playoff. BCS leaders have ruled out 16- and eight-team playoffs.
Commissioners from the BCS conferences and athletic director Jack Swarbrick of independent Notre Dame are meeting this week in Hollywood, Fla., to discuss options for the future of the BCS, whose TV contract with ESPN expires after the January 2014 bowls. The BCS has a negotiating window with ESPN in October and must decide on format changes before then to incorporate them in a new TV contract. ESPN has first negotiating rights.
Yet to be determined is the process for picking the top four teams for the playoff. The possibility of a selection committee has been discussed, Hancock said, as has the option to send the top conference champions to the playoff. The Pac-12 conference favors sending conference champions, while the Southeastern Conference – which sent LSU and Alabama to January’s BCS title game – prefers for the top four teams overall to go.
One big change that’s already been decided upon: The BCS will do away with the automatic-qualifier signification, Hancock said. The AQ has given top conferences automatic slots in the four existing BCS bowls: the Fiesta, Orange, Rose and Sugar. Currently the title game also is played at one of those four sites on a rotating basis.
Conference constituents will mull the proposals in the coming weeks and BCS commissioners will meet again in June in Chicago. After that, the BCS’s presidential oversight committee will weigh in. The BCS is a voluntary organization that operates outside the NCAA, so all conferences must approve of a new format in order for it to be implemented. Hancock said it’s possible that a conference could choose to opt out but said that is highly unlikely.
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