College Football Playoff Nearly Here

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Twelve university presidents are the only things that stand between major college football and a historic playoff.

Commissioners from the BCS conferences and Notre Dame presented a four-team playoff proposal to the BCS Presidential Oversight committee Tuesday in hopes of convincing the presidents that a playoff is in the best interest of college football.

The committee may approve a proposal for a four-team playoff that would feature a selection committee picking the four teams to play for the national championship. The BCS bowls would then rotate as semifinal sites and the national championship game would be bid on like the Super Bowl.

The committee can also send the commissioners back to put finishing tweaks into the proposal.

A competing proposal from the Big Ten and Pac-12 seeking a plus-one format, which is keeping the current bowl structure and then adding a championship game is also on the table. The plus-one is not favored by any other conferences.

Still, Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman said he would rather keep things the way they've been for decades rather than hold a playoff. He said he'd have to be convinced to sign off on the commissioners' plan.

While most fans, players, and coaches would prefer a playoff system akin to what is used at every other level of college football; major schools have long put up roadblocks to that to stick with the antiquated bowl system.

There will be no deadline for a decision, but most believe the decision will come soon. It will have to be completed before the fall to allow for negotiations to begin for television rights to the games.

In the end, it will all come down to money and a playoff could send schools a huge check at the end of each season.

According to the Sporting News, a projected figure for a 10-year television contract could generate roughly $5 billion overall from television providers. That number will be huge, because as the Sporting News pointed out, if the presidents went with a plus-one model; they'd leave close to $2.5 billion on the table.

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