Committee Starts Meetings To Determine Potential BCS Changes

News9.com Staff and Wire Reports

NEW ORLEANS – While Alabama Crimson Tide fans are rejoicing over their BCS National Championship Monday night, football fans around the country are rejoicing with what is happening Tuesday night.

The conference commissioners of 11 football conferences, as well as Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, are meeting to determine the future of the BCS system and discuss potential changes.

The committee has said it will essentially discuss anything and everything under the sun, including the possibility of a four-team playoff system.

In past meetings, the playoff scenario has been shot down quickly, but this year's discussion will apparently be more open among the members.

Any changes to the system would not take place until the 2014 season.

BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said that 50 or 60 possibilities for various changes were presented, breaking down into a smaller number of general ideas as to which direction to take the system.

Hancock says the process will be deliberate, and he expects it will take between five and seven meetings before July 4 to come to a decision.

An official BCS format decision must be in place before the fall when television negotiations with ESPN open.

Monday night's 13.8 ratings for the Alabama – LSU BCS Championship were the worst in the 14-year history of the BCS.

That number is down 14.3 percent from last year 16.1 overnight rating for Auburn – Oregon, the highest-rated telecast ever on ESPN.

Many college football fans were not happy with a rematch of two teams from the same conference and division meeting again for a national title game.

The BCS meetings over the next few months will decide upon a proper format for the BCS going forward, but that doesn't mean significant changes have to occur. It remains a possibility that the committee could simply stand pat and "renew" the current format.

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