[phrelin]

From the AP via the LA Times:

The move completes a six-month process in which the commissioners have been working on a new way to determine a major college football champion. Instead of simply matching the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country in a championship game after the regular season, the way the Bowl Championship Series has done since 1998, the new format will create a pair of national semifinals. No. 1 will play No. 4, No. 2 will play No. 3.

The winners will advance to the championship.

The teams will be selected by a committee, similar to the way the NCAA basketball tournament field is set.

 

[Earl Bonovich]

Hell has frozen over... so the Cubs may have a shot.

 

[Stewart Vernon]

I've been following on TV a bit.

I am curious... with a 4-team playoff, how will they be picking? Will it be the top 4 from the BCS ranking system? Will it be a subjective "best 4"?

Also... will they require the participants to have won their conference?

My thoughts are that with only having 4 teams... I wouldn't want 2 teams from the same conference.

I'm not in the SEC, but they have good teams... the thing is, last year we got a LSU/Alabama rematch that was less than satisfying. They like to argue that "the regular season matters" and yet, clearly it doesn't if you make two teams play each other again for the championship. That can only result in one team having to win twice OR a split record situation.

If they are only taking 4 teams... then I think they should only take conference champions.

If they expanded to an 8 team playoff, I then would be ok with a runner-up scenario from some conferences like the SEC who might have 2 strong contenders some years.

 

[Earl Bonovich]

With most of the conference's having their own championships.

I think the case of 2 from the same conference, will almost be non-existant...

I believe they explained it to be similar to BCS calculation... part computer/stats, and part human... not sure if this commitee then will have a final say on the teams.

 

[espnjason]

I think games against mid-major schools ('cupcakes' for short) should be eliminated and interconference matchups should be restricted to bowl games if there is any intention of having all conference champions in the playoff.

 

[Stewart Vernon]

I think games against mid-major schools ('cupcakes' for short) should be eliminated and interconference matchups should be restricted to bowl games if there is any intention of having all conference champions in the playoff.

Why?

If you eliminate the games out of conference, that would result in people always thinking SEC, Big Ten, Big Twelve, Pac-10 champions go to the playoff right?

IF you don't have any other interconference games to gauge strengths of conferences... wouldn't most polls tend to think those were the best conferences? And wouldn't that pretty much eliminate everyone else from contention unless the champion of those conferences had 3 losses or something?

I argue MORE games out of conference should happen.

When Alabama schedules a game and beats the team by 20 they say "cupcake"... but if that "cupcake" team wins all their games by 20 and can't get Alabama on the schedule, those same critics will say "but who did you play?"

That's one of the biggest gripes I have about college football... The big schools don't want to schedule the little schools because it is a lose-lose proposition. If the "cupcake" wins, then it is a huge upset loss for the big school and if they beat the "cupcake" then people say their schedule was too easy.

Meanwhile the "cupcake" school gets criticized for not scheduling if they don't get a big school on the schedule.

 

[Joe Spears]

ESPN acquires television rights to college football playoff which will begin after the 2014 season.