A playoff will determine who gets this trophy.
History was made today in Washington, D.C. when the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee – made up of presidents from each of the FBS conferences and Notre Dame – approved a four-team, seeded playoff within the current bowl structure.
The committee has approved a model with a selection committee selecting the four teams. The committee will rank the four playoff teams based on win-loss record, strength of schedule, head-to-head record, and if a team is a conference champion.
According to Virginia Tech President Charles Steger, the playoff will occur within the existing bowl structure.
“It’s a best of both worlds result that capture the excitement of the playoff while keeping the best regular season in sports and the tradition of the bowls,” Steger said in the press conference following the meeting.
The semifinal games will rotate among six different bowl games. BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock informed the media that the six bowl games were chosen to make the rotations easy for the length of the new deal: 12 years.
The specific rotation for the six semifinals over the next 12 years has not been determined as this time. The four BCS bowls (Orange, Rose, Fiesta, Sugar) plus possibly the Champions Bowl or Cotton Bowl are likely candidates, but the specific six bowls were not identified either.
While the semifinals will be held at existing bowls, the dates of those bowls will be moved back to accommodate the seminfials before the new national championship game. One of the semifinals will be held on New Years Eve, the other on New Years Day.
Also left to be determined includes how the selection committee will be chosen, the funding and payout, and of course – the name of the new event.
Many did not know what to expect out of Tuesday’s meeting in the nation’s capitol, but it was national history. For at least 12 years starting in January 2015 – college football will have a four-team seeded playoff to determine the national champion.
