College Football’s BCS Reaches Consensus on 4-Team Playoff

By Nancy Kercheval - Jun 21, 2012 8:17 AM GMT+0700

College football’s Bowl Championship Series commissioners reached a consensus on a four-team seeded playoff structure for the 2014 season.

The proposal will be presented to the Presidential Oversight Committee, which has the final say, the BCS said on its website. The university presidents meet June 26 in Washington.

“We are excited to be on the threshold of creating a new postseason structure for college football,” the statement, attributed to BCS commissioners and Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick, said. “We are getting very close and we look forward to next week’s meeting.”

The BCS commissioners have met five times to discuss a playoff model since the championship game on Jan. 9, when the University of Alabama won its second national title in three years with a 21-0 victory over Louisiana State at the Superdome in New Orleans.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany told ESPN that the group is “unified” although there are some issues that have not been finalized.

“There’s always devil in the detail, from the model to the selection process, but clearly we’ve made a lot of progress,” Delany said.

The commissioners divulged few details on their website ahead of the meeting with the university presidents.

The semifinals under the proposed championship would rotate among the major bowls, the Associated Press reported, citing people familiar with the BCS decision. A selection committee would help pick the schools competing in the four-team playoff.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nancy Kercheval in Washington at nkercheval@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net