College football’s new playoff system will consist of four teams – till 2025
College football's new playoff system, set to take to the field in a little over two years, is in many ways a mystery, but BCS executive director Bill Hancock gave some clues earlier this week as to some of the mechanisms of the system.
Speaking to John Canzano of 750 The Game in Portland, Ore., Hancock said that a television contract for the new deal is still in the works as is the composition of the selection committee which would pick the four teams that would go into the playoff, but that the number of teams eligible would remain four, despite fans and the media clamoring for a much larger field.
"There is no interest in our group, that being the university presidents and commissioners, to expand beyond four. That's why we created a 12-year term for this," Hancock told Canzano. "We can probably come back in the year 2025, actually you could have me on the show again and we could talk this through, but until then it's going to be four."
As the new system continues to take place and develop, some pieces are still coming together. The semifinals of the playoffs will be held at current bowl sites, but Hancock is still working on what the national championship game will look like. He said that the event, especially the first one in 2014, has to be "awesome right out of the box" and he is using the NCAA's other marquee event -- the Final Four -- as a blueprint.
He wants to create an "icon" of an event that will capture the public's imagination.
"The title game site selection will be handled much like the Final Four selection process is," Hancock said. "There will be some bidding involved, but mostly looking for cities that can deliver the venue, air transportation, lodging and a commitment by the folks in town to stage an event like this."
It all makes sense except for one last closing line from Hancock, who still seems ready to defend the much maligned and rather imperfect BCS. History, he says, will write a kinder legacy for the BCS than most fans and critics will give it credit for right now.
"I think we will get people saying, 'Hey, the BCS was pretty good,'" Hancock said. "I think you will be surprised by how many people down the road will say that."
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Kristian Dyer is a freelance writer. Follow him @KristianRDyer
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