Big 12 supports four-team playoff
The Big 12 favors a four-team playoff to decide major-college football’s national champion, and it supports some kind of selection committee to determine its participants.
Interim commissioner Chuck Neinas spoke Wednesday after meeting with Big 12 athletics directors in Kansas City, Mo.
Several configurations of a four-team playoff are being presented at conference meetings across the country. How the teams will be picked is up for debate. “We’re in favor of taking the four highest-ranked teams,” Neinas said.
Said Oklahoma athletics director Joe Castiglione of having a selection committee: “There needs to be a human element to kind of handle the unknowns. You can’t always say computers get it right or opinion polls will get it perfect. You still need someone with good, rational thinking to deal with unforeseen circumstances.
“Who knows what form that takes, but some form of human element that gets college football to the point of determining the best teams.”
The Big 12’s ADs also discussed whether a four-team playoff would be part of the bowl system, perhaps with current Bowl Championship Series sites rotating as hosts.
Neinas said the Big 12 favored playing the semifinals outside of the bowls, but there was a strong feeling among other conferences that it would be best to incorporate the semifinals within the bowl configuration with a stand-alone national championship game.
Meetings of BCS leaders are scheduled for next month to settle on a format to present to an oversight committee of university presidents in late June for final approval.
With the addition of Missouri and Texas A&M, the Southeastern Conference is tweaking its football and basketball schedules.
Football coaches are having a tougher time than their basket- ball counterparts in deciding what changes to make.
“The consensus is that there’s not the right answer right now that suits everyone,” Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen said at the SEC meetings in Destin, Fla.
Mullen and the 13 other coaches were debating whether to play an eight- or nine-game conference schedule and whether to maintain cross-division rivalries such as AlabamaTennessee, Auburn-Georgia and LSU-Florida. It’s not an easy decision considering each school has different allegiances.
Coaches presented their thoughts and concerns to ADs on Wednesday. The ADs will make a recommendation to school presidents and chancellors Friday before the conference settles on a format.
Basketball coaches had fewer problems Wednesday.
They proposed an 18-game league schedule that would keep all 14 teams together instead of moving back to divisions. Teams would play everyone at least once (13 games) and have one annual home-andhome series with a designated rival.
The remaining four games each season would be filled by the other 12 teams on a rotating basis. The format, along with changes to the postseason tournament, probably will be approved Friday.