Big Ten Athletic Directors In Favor Of Four-Team Playoff

If the athletic directors of the Big Ten get their way, college football will soon be moving to a four-team playoff, with a rotation of the current BCS bowls serving as the sites for semifinal games, they told gathered press on Tuesday. The athletic directors as well as commissioner Jim Delaney had flirted with supporting the idea of schools hosting the semifinals on campus, but in order to preserve the importance of the Rose Bowl, they have officially abandoned that idea.

Delaney, who is meeting with the conference's athletic directors in Chicago, said that he hopes the NCAA will agree on a basic playoff model sometime within the next 60 days, but it could take longer than that for everything to be officially solidified. The four-team, bowl-site model is gaining steam, but the NCAA will still have to hammer out two other critical aspects: who will be eligible, and how those teams will be selected.

As for the who, it's believed, according to Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune, that the Big Ten favors a "hybrid model" that would push forward the three highest rated conference champions plus a wildcard team from any league. As for the how, there is no word yet on which selection method the Big Ten prefers, with pollsters, computers or a selection committee (or some combination of the three) all possible deciding options.

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