BCS officials still undecided on final plan but hope to make progress today

Associated Press

HOLLYWOOD, Fla.

When Bowl Championship Series officials leave the hotel in which they’ve gathered to hammer out the future of college football’s postseason, they want to have the choices whittled down to two or three.

The guys in charge met Wednesday for about eight hours to discuss overhauling how a champion is determined and possibly implementing a four-team playoff. It is the fourth such get together this year, and they agreed it’s time to start narrowing the field.

They will reconvene today and BCS executive director Bill Hancock said the 11 conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director would like to have it down to a few clear choices.

“I think that’s what everyone wants to do. Get down to two maybe three,” Hancock said. “I think we’re making good progress on that. I think we’re going to make it.”

One thing is clear: “The status quo is off the table,” Hancock said. Though he cautiously added they have not ruled out making over the current system that guarantees only a No. 1 vs. No. 2 championship game.

But all signs point toward that being unlikely, and that by the 2014 season the BCS as fans have known it will be gone.

“I would say there is an expectation that there will be significant change,” Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said.

Delany and his fellow commissioners arrived in south Florida with four options to discuss, but much of the focus has been on a four-team playoff with two national semifinals and a title game.

That model comes with many variables, such as where the games will be played, how the teams will be picked and how the bowls fit in — if they do at all.

The role of the bowls represents a potential obstacle. Specifically, the Rose Bowl.

“We feel like we have something very special and unique in college football,” Rose Bowl spokeswoman Gina Chappin said. “We went into the room with the intention of reaffirming what we are.”