Old bowl system more likely than playoff

Published Jan. 10, 2011 7:10 p.m. ET

foxsports

Major college football's postseason is more likely to return to the old bowl system, which didn't guarantee a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup, than to start using a playoff in the next eight years.

BCS executive director Bill Hancock told reporters at a Football Writers Association of America event on Monday that in 2012 he expects the conference commissioners to begin discussing possible changes to the BCS beyond the 2014 postseason.

The BCS is in the first year of a television contract with ESPN that runs through the 2013 season. Any major changes to the system would go into effect for the 2014 season and 2015 bowls.

Hancock said the commissioners will first survey the university presidents about alterations they would like to have considered.

''There is no groundswell among the presidents for any kind of ... seismic change,'' Hancock said.

A return to the old postseason system, which relied on conference tie-ins and bowl organizers to make bowl matchups, isn't likely, Hancock said, but it will be in the ''spectrum of options.''

''It always has been, it always will be,'' he said. ''I don't think it will carry the day.''

But an 8- or 16-team playoff is ''not even in the spectrum,'' he added.

Last month at a college athletics forum in New York, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said supporters of the BCS were fatigued with defending the system from constant legal and political pressures.

Hancock said it has not been easy to fend off all the attacks from playoff supporters.

''I think we all get a little tired of the invective,'' he said.