BCS No More: College Football Moving Toward Four-Team Playoff System

The BCS is on the way out as college football is one step closer to a playoff system.

Commissioners from BCS schools and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick endorsed a four-team playoff model that would begin in the 2014 season, ESPN reported. The commissioners’ plan must still be approved by the BCS presidential oversight committee, which meets at the end of June.

The new playoff system would replace the current BCS system, which has been in place since 1998 and brought a considerable amount of controversy to the sport. Under the new proposal, the four participants would be selected by a committee using criteria like conference championships and strength of schedule, ESPN reported.

The national semifinal games would be played using existing BCS bowl games on a rotating basis, and the national championship game itself would be modeled after college basketball’s Final Four with the game awarded to different cities each year.

Even the name Bowl Championship Series would likely be retired with the new model, the Associated Press reported.

”We are excited to be on the threshold of creating a new postseason structure for college football that builds on the great popularity of our sport,” the Associated Press quoted Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick.

The BCS commissioners have been working on the plan since January and met this week for four hours to finalize details of the plan. All 11 commissioners stood together at the announcement of the new plan.

”I think we’re very unified,” said Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany in the AP report.

Even Delany’s involvement shows a massive momentum shift toward the playoff system, the report noted. For years he had been a defender of the BCS and staunch opponent of a playoff system of any kind.