Ralph D. Russo
FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2012, file photo, the Coaches' Trophy is displayed before the BCS National Championship game between the LSU and Alabama in New Orleans. College football will finally have a playoff. Come 2014, the BCS is dead. A committee of university presidents on Tuesday, June 26, 2012, approved the BCS commissioners' plan for a four-team playoff to start in the 2014 season. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
June 26, 2012 - 6:21 PM
WASHINGTON - College football will finally have a playoff. Come 2014, the BCS is dead.
A committee of university presidents on Tuesday approved the BCS commissioners' plan for a four-team playoff to start in the 2014 season.
The move completes a six-month process in which the commissioners have been working on a new way to determine a college football champion. Instead of simply matching the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country in a championship game after the regular season, the way the Bowl Championship Series has done since 1998, the new format will create a pair of national semifinals. No. 1 will play No. 4, No. 2 will play No. 3.
The winners will advance the national championship game.
The teams will be selected by a committee, similar to the way the NCAA basketball tournament field is set.
There are still some details to work out, but all the decision-makers are on board.
News from © The Associated Press, 2012