Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune reports The Big Ten is actually giving suggestions for a possible college football playoff. This is a direct departure from earlier thoughts that conferences would be painfully slow in moving to a playoff system.
What It Means
The report cites sources revealing the Big Ten plan that would remove the top four teams from the BCS bowl pool and have semifinal games played on the college campus of the higher seed.
The issues with having neutral sites being found each season, and causing problems with travel, would be gone.
This would of course allow a Super Bowl-type bidding for the national championship. The report cites Northwestern athletics director Jim Phillips, who chairs the Big Ten’s administrators council. He gives hope that fan’s prayers for a playoff may in fact be answered.
“We have to listen to the fans; we cannot be tone-deaf,” Phillips said. “The Big Ten is open and curious.”
This gives us one big conference that is now officially considering a playoff system. Not only that, they are offering up constructive options to further the debate.
We have never been closer to having tremendous upheaval to the current structure.
What’s Next
This upcoming fall will go a long way toward deciding what our future college football postseasons will look like. BCS executive director Bill Hancock said that 50-60 BCS bowl/playoff plans were presented after the national title game, but there was a great deal of specifics lacking from them.
There is plenty to iron out, even a proposal that includes a seven-win requirement for bowl teams, nixing a great deal of programs that eek their way into the postseason.
The plans will be ironed out in the fall, and they could be implemented as soon as the 2014 season. The report cites low ratings as the possible reason the Big Ten decided to offer up a solution.
Greenstein states only 14 percent of the nation tuned into the BCS championship, which is the third lowest since the BCS took over 14 years ago.
Finally, change is around the corner, and it took a hit to the pocketbook to make it happen.
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