USA Today’s Nicole Auerbach on the newly approved playoff format coming soon to rescue college football:
WASHINGTON – The long, slow march toward a major college football playoff is over. It has been approved.
Conference commissioners met with an oversight committee of university presidents and chancellors here Tuesday to approve the four-team seeded playoff, consisting of two semifinal games in bowls and a national championship game that will be put up for bid.
Commissioners presented the plan for 30 minutes then took questions from the presidents, who then deliberated for about three hours before announcing their approval.
“A four-team playoff doesn’t go too far,” said Virginia Tech President Charles Steger, chair of the presidential oversight committee. “It goes just the right amount.”
The 14-year reign of the Bowl Championship Series— and the persistent criticism that accompanied it — is finally near its end. The new deal will go for 12 years.
“This was timely, had to be done,” former Big 12 interim commissioner Chuck Neinas said before Tuesday’s meetings began. “(It was in) response to the public, response to the interest in college football. The BCS has done a great deal in helping promote college football, and there’s a general feeling we need to do something better to determine a national champion.”
The presidents also endorsed the concept of the semifinals rotating among six bowls.
“We do not know the rotation yet,” said BCS executive director Bill Hancock. “That’s still to be determined.”
And they endorsed the idea of a selection committee for the playoff teams, which would end the combination of computer and human polls that have been lightening rods for criticism since the BCS began.
The committee will rank playoff teams based on: won-loss record, strength of schedule, head-to-head and if a team is conference champion.
“I think generally, each conference will be represented,” Hancock said of the selection committee. “There’s a lot of work to be done on that. I think a model will be the NCAA(basketball) selection committee. We would be well-served to use that as a model.
“I think strength of schedule is going to be a very important part of this. Who did you play? Where did you play them? How did you do? I think you are going to have to play a good schedule in order to make it into a playoff.”
Jeff Sagarin, who does computer rankings for USA TODAY Sports and has been part of the BCS formula since the beginning, argues that strength of schedule already exists.
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