NCAA chief likes playoff
Sees four teams as viable, but 16 as likely too many
INDIANAPOLIS — NCAA President Mark Emmert would support a four-team playoff in college football — as long as the field doesn’t grow.
After giving his annual state of the association speech Thursday in Indianapolis, Emmert acknowledged he would back a small playoff if that’s what Bowl Championship Series officials decide to adopt.
“The notion of having a Final Four approach is probably a sound one,” Emmert said when asked what he heard coming out of New Orleans this week. “Moving toward a 16-team playoff is highly problematic because I think that’s too much to ask a young man’s body to do. It’s too many games, it intrudes into the school year and, of course, it would probably necessitate a complete end to the bowl system that so many people like now.”
Emmert spoke two days after the 11 Bowl Championship Series conferences met to discuss possible changes to the system starting in 2014, but there is no consensus yet.
BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said Tuesday that 50-60 Mark Emmert possibilities for various changes were presented during a deliberate meeting in New Orleans. Hancock anticipates it will take another five to seven meetings to reach a conclusion in July.
One possibility is the four-team playoff, or the so - called plus- one approach, that would create two national semifinals and a championship game played one week later. The original proposal, made in 2008 by the commissioners of the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference, was emphatically shot down by the leaders of the Big Ten, Pac10, Big East, Big 12 and Notre Dame.
Clemson defensive coordinator Kevin Steele won’t return to the team. Steele said he had left the Tigers after three seasons to pursue other coaching opportunities. Steele and the defense had come under heavy criticism after allowing a bowl-record 70 points in their embarrassing loss to West Virginia in the Orange Bowl last week. ... Longtime assistant coach Joe Deforest is leaving Oklahoma State and reportedly taking a job with former colleague Dana Holgorsen at West Virginia. ... Tony Reno, who served as a Harvard assistant coach for the Crimson for the past three seasons, was introduced as Yale’s new head coach, ending a turbulent process that began with the resignation of Tom Williams over embellishments to his résumé.
Illinois trustees are expected to approve a contract to pay new head football coach Tim Beckman $9 million over five years, plus incentives. Beckman will be paid $1.6 million his first year. That figure will grow by $100,000 each year through the end of the contract.
NFL bound: Alabama All-american running back Trent Richardson, linebacker Dont’a Hightower and cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick said they’re leaving school to start pro careers, three days after helping the Crimson Tide to its second national title of their careers. ... LSU All-american cornerback Morris Claiborne has decided to leave school a year early to enter the NFL draft. Defensive tackle Michael Brockers also announced he will enter the draft. ... Boston College defensive end Max Holloway says he will forgo his final year of eligibility.
Briefly: Florida running back Jeff Demps is giving up his football career to focus on track and the 2012 U.S. Olympic team. Demps is the two-time defending NCAA Indoor 60-meter champion. ... A Houston attorney who was leading Mike Leach’s lawsuit against Texas Tech over the coach’s firing in 2009 has asked to withdraw from the case. Attorney Paul Dobrowski declined to comment on his decision.