The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision is steadily progressing toward a four-team playoff system to crown a national champion.
After discarding eight and 16-team playoff models, presidents of the Bowl Championship Series member conferences and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick appear to have settled on a four-team playoff system during meetings last week in Hollywood, Fla., according to multiple reports. The new playoff format would begin for the 2014 college football season, according to the reports.
The BCS’s official statement after the meetings said the goal all along has been to protect the regular season.
“From the start, we set out to protect college football’s unique regular season, which we see as the best regular season in sports,” the BCS statement reads.
Like it or not, it seems the BCS is moving in the direction of eliminating the algorithms associated with the system.
“Having carefully reviewed calendars and schedules, we believe that either an eight-team or a 16-team playoff would diminish the regular season and harm the bowls,” the statement read. “College football’s regular season is too important to diminish and we do not believe it’s in the best interest of student-athletes, fans or alumni to harm the regular season.”
The location of the semifinal games under the proposed plan has yet to be determined. Multiple reports say an integral factor in the proceedings would be preserving the Rose Bowl and possibly the other BCS bowls.
Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said he’s open to the idea of change as long as it isn’t too extreme.
“Not all change is manageable,” Delany told The New York Times. “You want to control change. You want evolution, not revolution, because you don’t know what the unintended consequences will be.”
The BCS officials and other conference commissioners are scheduled to meet again in Chicago in June, according to ESPN.com
Some students said they think the Buckeyes will do well in the new system.
“I think (a four-team playoff) would be a lot more entertaining and exciting,” said Anthony Chambers, a second-year in biology. “I think (Meyer would) do great. I don’t think that a different format is going to change how good of a coach he is because he’s already proven himself at another college in the existing format.”
President E. Gordon Gee told The Lantern in February that he still opposed the idea of a playoff system, but is starting to warm up to the idea.
“I’m very much on record of being opposed to a playoff system,” Gee said. “Saying that, one of the things you have to do at my age, you have to understand that the world is changing around you, so therefore you have to take a look and see what the possibilities are … I want to think about it.”
Andrew Tirpak, a fourth-year in environmental engineering, said he supports the four-team playoff model and he thinks OSU coach Urban Meyer will succeed in the proposed system.
“I mean, (Meyer is) a really good coach and I think he would really shape our team for that kind of system,” Tirpak said.
Katelyn Pruchnicki contributed to this story.
