Here’s the statement by the eleven college football conference commissioners and the Notre Dame Athletics Director. I trimmed it way down to eliminate all the cliches, corporatespeak, tautologies and double talk.
“From the start, we set out to protect college football’s unique regular season…We are also mindful of the bowl tradition and seek to create a structure that continues to reward student-athletes with meaningful bowl appearances.
“Having carefully reviewed calendars and schedules, we believe that either an 8-team or a 16-team playoff would diminish the regular season and harm the bowls…we have taken off the table both an 8-team and a 16-team playoff.
“We will continue to meet and review the exact structure for what a new post-season could look like. We will present to our conferences a very small number of four-team options, each of which could be carried out in a number of ways.
“We have discussed in detail the advantages and disadvantages of in-bowl or out-of-bowl games.
We have discussed in detail the advantages and disadvantages of campus sites or neutral sites. We have discussed in detail the advantages and disadvantages of various ways to rank or qualify teams.”
So there you have it. It’ll have to be a final four type deal, no 8 or 16 team “December Delirium” type answer to March Madness.
In order to make more sense of what’s going on at the BCS meetings in South Florida, here’s someone who’s there- the Chicago Tribune’s Teddy Greenstein. Here’s an excerpt from his latest piece: (Also, he’s been tweeting the latest updates from the meeting at his Twitter account @teddygreenstein)
It’s when several major impediments to creating a college football playoff — namely, protecting the Rose Bowl and concerns about devaluing the regular season — appeared to dissolve.
Every conference commissioner who spoke after Wednesday’s Bowl Championship Series meetings expressed some level of optimism regarding a playoff. The sport clearly is on the cusp of a new system that will please the vast majority of its fans.
“There is an expectation that there will be significant change,” Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said.
Officials hope to leave Thursday with two or three playoff proposals that commissioners will take to university presidents, chancellors, athletic directors and coaches.
So finally, some good news in this regard. Positivity for the movement. Slow-moving, but positive nonetheless.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
A Fulbright scholar and MBA, Banks has appeared on live radio all over the world; and he’s a member of the Football Writers Association of America, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and Society of Professional Journalists. The President of the United States follows him on Twitter (@Paul_M_BanksTSB) You should too