Decisions might come at fast pace
Options: Nothing is firm, but Bowl Championship Series executive director Bill Hancock and other officials have pointed to next week’s meeting and the presidents’ follow-up six days later as endpoints — at least for setting most of the framework of a new postseason system.
Issues: The conference commissioners appeared unified on a four-team playoff in April. Comments after subsequent conference meetings, in which presidents and athletics directors took part, indicate a splintering of opinion on the details.
Quoting: “You’d like to have the elements of what you’re doing in place so you could work on how to implement them,” says Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick, who is hopeful of significant progress — a decision on the format and other basics — today. “As an example, if you made the decision to use a selection committee, then you can spend the next week on the issue of what’s the composition of the committee.”
At least one more high-stakes undertaking lies ahead.
“If you’re going to bid out a championship game, which is a likely element of most of the models discussed, the lead time on that is significant,” Swarbrick says. “Look at the lead time on bidding out a Final Four or a Super Bowl; it’s four or five years. The external time pressures we face are very real, and I think we have to be conscious of it.”