Report: College Football to Begin Playoffs in 2014?

US Presswire

ESPN’s Joe Schad has tweeted some of the finest words to ever hit Twitter this afternoon, signalling that College Football will indeed have playoffs in 2014, pending approval from university presidents.

Playoffs? PLAYOFFS?!?!

While it seems unlikely that college presidents would turn down the opportunity to play one more game(think about all of that ‘Final Four’ merchandise revenue that could be made), knowing the NCAA and the stubbornness of the college presidents, anything is possible.

According to Adam Rittenberg of ESPN, the presidents, including USC President C.L. Max Nikias, will meet on June 26th to decide the fate of the proposition, and will also consider other models to the playoff system.

Now, what happens to the BCS? Dennis Dodd of CBS reported yesterday that the BCS name and branding would cease to exist with the emergence of a 4-team playoff, and following today’s summit, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott echoed that sentiment and then some, per Schad.

Having a selection committee is really going to be an interesting concept. Does it work in basketball? Predominantly yes, given that there’s 68 teams making the NCAA Tournament and therefore more room for disagreement that lessens the blow of a snub.

With a 4-team playoff, how will a committee react to having two teams from the same conference in the running, or perhaps a rematch of an early season showdown? Given the discrepencies in postseason philosophy across the board, a committee can either be the greatest thing for college football or the worst.

Let’s be real, while the BCS system allowed for just two teams and thus was flawed, it still gave us two teams and it did its job in that sense, without biases or predjuices due to the computer rankings. Did it choose Nebraska over Oregon and Oklahoma over USC? It sure did. But it did so by sticking to its core criteria. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

So, now we wait. We wait for confirmation and approval, look forward to the next round of debates: home games or predetermined sites.

Oh, so that answers that.