BCS conjures method to divide 5 into 4
By The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The Bowl
Championship Series added a game without adding a bowl but is no closer to a
playoff than before.
The BCS will play five games
at the current four sites starting in the 2006 season, with the bowl that
hosts the national championship game also holding an earlier postseason
game.
A committee of school
presidents unanimously approved the double-hosting model presented to them
by the BCS conference commissioners, Oregon president Dave Frohnmayer said
Thursday.
"This model is the least
disruptive to current relationships between individual conferences and the
individual bowls," Frohnmayer, chairman of the Presidential Oversight
Committee, said during a teleconference.
The changes follow a season in
which the BCS was criticized for a system that led to co-national champions,
Southern California and LSU. While the new model doesn't address the main
complaints, the BCS is working on a new formula for the standings that it
hopes will fix last year's problem.
Under the new model, the
championship game will still rotate between the Sugar, Fiesta, Orange and
Rose bowls, but it will be played about a week after the other four games.
The name of the championship game has yet to be determined.
The approved model will be
presented to the Rose Bowl and ABC, who are set to begin negotiations on a
television contract Friday.
By expanding, the BCS contends
it is starting to give schools from smaller conferences greater access to
the big payout games. Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg said the BCS looked
into bringing in another bowl for the extra game.
The double-hosting model drew
the support of the current BCS bowls, who were concerned they would host the
championship only every five years, instead of every four.
"This is a new model that
presents unique opportunities for the bowls hosting them. The feedback from
our current bowl partners has been very positive towards it," said Weiberg,
the incoming BCS coordinator.
Frohnmayer said the university
presidents rejected the so-called plus-one model, which would have matched
the top two teams after the four BCS bowls, because it would be a step
toward creating a playoff system. He said there was "adamant opposition"
among presidents for moving the BCS in that direction.
Both Frohnmayer and Weiberg
said the BCS was looking to maintain and strengthen the traditional ties
between conferences and bowls. Those ties have been loosened to help the BCS
match No. 1 and No. 2, and has led to some nontraditional bowl matchups.
The Rose Bowl has been
especially concerned with how its involvement with the BCS affects its
long-standing relationship with the Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences. The Rose
Bowl is the only BCS game with ties to two conferences.
Two seasons ago, Pac-10
co-champ USC and Big Ten co-champ Iowa played in the Orange Bowl, which
rankled the Rose Bowl and left it with Pac-10 co-champ Washington State and
Oklahoma of the Big 12.
While the possibility still
exists that teams outside the Big Ten and Pac-10 will play in the Rose Bowl,
game organizers are pleased with the change.
"It puts us back to a
four-year cycle with eight potential visits by Pac-10 and Big Ten teams,"
said Mitch Dorger, CEO of the Tournament of Roses.
It also creates the potential
for the Rose Bowl to pit the Big Ten and Pac-10 champs one week and a
national title game the next.
Sugar Bowl director Paul
Hoolahan said he was supportive of the double-hosting model and wasn't
troubled by the possibility of the Rose Bowl landing four marquee teams in
one year.
"If that were to happen in the
year that they were designated to host the national championship, so be it
and more power to them," he said.
The BCS begins its television
negotiations with ABC in the fall. Those talks will determine many of the
details of the new-look BCS, such as sponsorship for the championship game,
how the bowls set matchups and when the title game will be played.
Copyright 2004
The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
02/23/2007 10:41:14 AM
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