Changes to BCS 5 years off

HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — The top administrator of the Mountain West Conference said it could take five years to change the way college football championships are decided.

Acknowledging the MWC was still sore about undefeated Utah being shut out of last year’s national championship game, Commissioner Craig Thompson vowed to keep lobbying Congress, Bowl Championship Series administrators and college football’s 10 other conferences for a revamped playoff system.

“We feel a change needs to be made and inclusion needs to be broader,” he said.

In the meantime, Thompson said conference board members decided not to penalize athletes by balking at signing a broadcasting contract and walking away from the existing postseason bowl system. The Mountain West on July 8 became the last conference to sign a broadcasting deal with ESPN for the 2011-14 seasons.

“We couldn’t take our kids voluntarily out of the chance to play in a BCS bowl game,” Thompson said. “As much as we would like to see change in the system, it is the only system.”

At issue are the number of automatic bids awarded to conferences for postseason play in top-tier bowls, and the money those appearances bring.

Six conferences — the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC — get automatic BCS bids, plus about $18 million each.

The Mountain West, which doesn’t get an automatic bid, calls the system unfair. It has proposed an eight-team playoff featuring first-round play in the four top current BCS bowls — Sugar, Orange, Rose, Fiesta. Winners would advance to a championship.

BCS administrator Bill Hancock acknowledged criticism of the current system, which picks two top BCS teams for a championship game based on two polls and six computer rankings.

“We know the BCS is not perfect,” Hancock said. “But it is the best proposal that has been presented that meets the needs of all 11 conferences.

Last year’s championship matched 12-1 Florida against 12-1 Oklahoma, while undefeated Utah beat Southeast Conference powerhouse Alabama, 31-17.

“The fact is, six conferences had individual bowl deals before the BCS,” Hancock said of the system that began in 1998. “The BCS has to offer them at least as good a deal as they had before, or they wouldn’t participate.”

Hancock added that the other five conferences can earn an automatic qualification, depending on their teams’ performances over a four-year span.

Thompson vowed to “fight within and challenge within, and try to coerce and convince and cajole ... our fellow 10 conferences to change the system over the next couple years.”