BCS will have another exam; can TV push a playoff harder this time?
By RALPH D. RUSSO
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Big-time college football never has been closer to having a playoff. Don’t get too excited. There are still plenty of obstacles standing in the way, and at best it’s probably seven years away
from becoming a reality — if it ever does.
But, hey, at least the people in charge want to talk about it.
In Bowl Championship Series terms, that’s progress.
“This whole postseason of college football, since going back into the mid- to early ‘90s, has been an evolution. Significant change traditionally has not come speedily,” Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner and current BCS coordinator John Swofford told The Associated Press in a recent telephone interview, chuckling at his obvious understatement. “I’ve often equated it to turning a battle ship.”
The commissioners of the 11 major college football conferences, along with the athletic director of Notre Dame, will dock in south Florida for three days of meetings starting Monday, and talk about steering their ship into previously uncharted waters.
Namely, what would it take to implement the so-called plus-one model into the BCS.
And what role will TV play in it? Read on ..
One version of a plus-one format is essentially a four-team playoff, using the major bowls to host 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3 semifinals. The winners would advance to the BCS championship game to be played about a week later.
Currently, the BCS’s 1 vs. 2 championship game is set after the regular season, which generally leads to much second-guessing.
The plus-one idea has been floating around since ABC proposed it to the BCS in 2004, when the two sides where trying to work out a new television agreement. ABC backed out, keeping the Rose Bowl.
This will be the first time the commissioners themselves have committed to giving it a good long look. Why now?
1) The BCS will begin negotiations on another TV deal with Fox for the rights to the Orange, Fiesta and Sugar Bowls as early as September. The current four-year, $320 million deal runs through the 2010 bowl season. Once another TV contract is set, the format is probably locked in for another four years (at least). So if the BCS wants to make a change that could go into effect for the 2011 bowls, now is the time to do it.
2) Because the working relationship between the conference commissioners is far better than it was back in 2004, when ABC put the plus-one idea on the table and it was soundly rejected.
There’s a reason why a plus-one, or any major format change to the BCS, is unlikely to be hammered out before a new TV deal is inked -- Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen and Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany have both made clear that while they’re willing to take part in a discussion about the plus-one, they are not in favor of it — or any changes to the BCS that would interfere with their conference’s long and lucrative relationship with the Rose Bowl.
Also complicating matters is the Rose Bowl’s separate TV deal, an eight-year agreement with ABC that runs through 2014.
The Big Ten and Pac-10 have been portrayed as obstructionists, standing in the way of BCS
progress. While Delany and Hansen have brought much of that criticism on themselves by taking such a firm public stance against the plus-one, it’s not accurate to say the Rose Bowl and its partners are the only thing standing in the way of a plus-one.
No other conference has ever come out in favor of a plus-one.
The commissioners will get no pressure to change from Fox.
“When we signed up three years ago, we were comfortable with the formula they presented to us,” Fox sports president Ed Goren said. “If there is a major goal, a No. 1 goal of Fox Sports, it is to continue this relationship. Whatever they present to us, we’re ready to move forward.”
Leave a comment