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BCS Officials Open To 'Final Four' Football Format

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By JOEY JOHNSTON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 8, 2008

NEW ORLEANS - The incoming and outgoing coordinators of the Bowl Championship Series left open the possibility of a college football version of the "Final Four" to follow the 2010 regular season, but they agreed Monday that more study is needed before changes are made to the current BCS format.

Either way, despite the most wide-open and controversial regular season ever, it doesn't appear a playoff format will be added to the Division I-A ranks in the foreseeable future.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive, who completed his two-year term as BCS coordinator, has openly wondered whether "matching No. 1 against No. 2 was enough" to determine college football's championship.

He has a new ally in ACC commissioner John Swofford, the incoming BCS coordinator, who said his league has "much more open-mindedness" toward the so-called "Plus-One" format than it did two years ago.

The Plus-One would add a layer to the current BCS system.

The top four teams in the final BCS standings would qualify. This season, for example, the semifinals would have matched No. 1 Ohio State against No. 4 Oklahoma, then No. 2 LSU against No. 3 Virginia Tech, probably at the sites of existing bowl games.

The winners would have met one week later in the BCS Championship Game.

"It's worth discussing and exploring, but you have to cognizant of a few things," Swofford said. "There are some good aspects of the current BCS system. If you change and you feel you still haven't made it better, then is that really a good thing?"

Here's the current debate: Shouldn't USC (11-2) and Georgia (11-2) have warranted more consideration for the national championship?

If the final BCS standings were used, neither Georgia (No. 5) nor USC (No. 7) would have qualified for a Plus-One or "Final Four" format.

Oklahoma (blown out by West Virginia at the Fiesta Bowl) and Virginia Tech (a loser to Kansas at the Orange Bowl) already have lost their realistic claim toward a national championship.

Swofford said it's more practical to have four seeded teams to qualify for the Plus-One, rather than to play out all the bowls, then select the two most worthy teams for a championship game.

Seemingly, the Plus-One would have been the ideal solution in several seasons, when obvious candidates were omitted from the BCS Championship Game, such as 2000 (one-loss Miami), 2001 (one-loss Oregon) 2003 (one-loss USC), 2004 (unbeaten Auburn) and 2006 (one-loss Michigan).

"Really, there is no perfect system," Slive said. "But if we can get closer to perfect, we'd like to look at it."

Slive and Swofford reiterated that most coaches and nearly all university presidents do not favor a playoff format, choosing to preserve the traditional bowl system. There are two more seasons remaining in the current $320 million BCS television contract with Fox (the Rose Bowl just completed the second year of a separate eight-year deal with ABC that runs through the Jan. 1, 2014, game).

The potential Plus-One format will be a major topic for conference commissioners at the April BCS meetings in Miami. Shortly thereafter, Fox will have an exclusive negotiation period for the new BCS TV contract (beginning with the 2010 season).

There's the possibility of adding a sixth BCS game into the mix. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has confirmed he wants the highest status for the Cotton Bowl, which will move to his new stadium.

Then there's the potential sticking point of the Rose Bowl, which wants to preserve its traditional Pac-10 vs. Big Ten matchup, as well as its separate TV deal.

"If they do establish a Plus-One, it would require an understanding between the Rose Bowl and the BCS," said Chuck Gerber, executive vice president of collegiate sports for ABC/ESPN. "Certainly, the public would like to see a Plus-One. And if Slive and Swofford say they're open to it, I believe it could happen.

"If the Rose Bowl wants to do it be involved in a Plus-One, we'll find a way to make the ABC contract work. The climate may be right for some change, but there are a lot of things that must be discussed and decided, that's for sure."

Reporter Joey Johnston can be reached at (813) 259-7353 or jjohnston@tampatrib.com.

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