HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) -- When Bowl Championship Series officials
leave the beachside hotel where they've gathered to hammer out the
future of college football's postseason, they want to have the choices
narrowed down to two or three.
The 11 conference commissioners
and Notre Dame's athletic director met Wednesday for about eight hours
to discuss overhauling how a champion is determined and possibly
implementing a four-team playoff. It was the fourth such gathering this
year. They reconvene Thursday and BCS executive director Bill Hancock
said they all agreed it's time to start crossing items off the list.
"I
think that's what everyone wants to do. Get down to two, maybe three,"
he said. "I think we're making good progress on that. I think we're
going to make it."
One thing is clear: "The status quo is off the
table," Hancock said. Though he cautiously added they have not ruled
out making over the current system that guarantees only a No. 1 vs. No. 2
championship game.
But all signs point toward that being unlikely, and that by the 2014 season the BCS as fans have known it will be gone.
"I would say there is an expectation that there will be significant change," Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said.
Delany
and his fellow commissioners arrived in south Florida with four options
to discuss, but much of the focus has been on a four-team playoff with
two national semifinals and a title game.
That model comes with
many variables, such as where the games will be played, how the teams
will be picked and how the bowls fit in -- if they do at all. The role
of the bowls represents a potential obstacle. Specifically, the Rose
Bowl.
On Tuesday, bowl executives from the Sugar, Orange, Fiesta
and Rose met with the conference commissioners to give their input and
answer some questions about how their games could work in a new
postseason system.
An option being discussed could force those
traditional bowls to give up holding their games in years in which they
host a semifinal or championship game. That could mean a year without a
Rose Bowl, which has been played every year since 1916 -- most of those
games matching the champions of the Big Ten and Pac-12.
"We feel
like we have something very special and unique in college football,"
Rose Bowl spokeswoman Gina Chappin said. "We went into the room with the
intention of reaffirming what we are."
The Big Ten and Pac-12
don't just play in the Rose Bowl, they're partners with the game. Delany
and Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott have made it clear that protecting
that lucrative partnership is a priority.
"I just want to make
sure that the changes that we make are evolutionary," Delany said. "That
they support the regular season. That they're from a Rose Bowl
perspective, that they sustain that tradition. That we're also able to
produce something that the public appreciates and supports.
"You
want to control change. You want to have evolution, not revolution
because you don't know that the unintended consequences will be."
Delany and Hancock insisted the Rose Bowl won't stand in the way of change.
"Everybody is going to have to make some changes," Hancock said. "Everybody recognizes the importance of the Rose Bowl."
There
have also been discussions about playing semifinals on campus sites and
having only the championship game at a neutral site, like a college
football Super Bowl. That idea was pushed by the Big Ten, which has long
desired getting teams from warmer climates on its frozen turf for big
games.
But there are concerns that playoff games on campuses
could be logistical nightmares and the idea doesn't seem to be gaining
support.
"I think maybe it has more disadvantages than
advantages," Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive said. "One
of the disadvantages is I think when you're trying to determine who's
going to play for the national championship, what's the competitive
environment in which you put a team to play for the national
championship.
"That's not to say that I wouldn't listen to it."
The
full group hasn't even started talking about a new model for revenue
distribution, which Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson predicted
would be "contentious."
How willing Delany and Scott are to
consider options that could minimize the importance of the Rose Bowl
will be pivotal in determining what proposals the commissioners take
with them when they leave Florida.
"How it ends up," Delany said, "to be determined."
The
end is near, though. Hancock said that the commissioners would like to
be able to present a new format to the presidential oversight committee
for approval by July 4.
