Advertisement

Presidents committee expected to sign off on a four-team college football playoff Tuesday

The BCS Presidential Oversight Committee meets Tuesday in Washington, D.C., and it's expected that the 12 men will OK a four-team playoff to begin in the 2014 season.

The group also might sign off on the details for a selection committee, but no one should be worried if it doesn't. Approving the four-team field is just fine for now; everyone can worry about finalizing everything at a later date.

(Here's an alphabetical list of the 12 men, with one representing each of the 11 FBS leagues and one from Notre Dame: Tulane president Scott Cowen, Notre Dame president Rev. John Jenkins, Florida president Bernie Machen, USC president Max Nikias, Idaho president Duane Nellis, Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman, Northern Illinois president John Peters, Texas president Bill Powers, Louisville president James Ramsey, Western Kentucky president Gary Ransdell, Virginia Tech president Charles W. Steger and Fresno State president John Welty.)

Perlman is a proponent of a "plus-one" system and will present his case, but no one expects support for his plan.

Along with choosing the four-team format, it's expected that the presidents will discuss the length of the first playoff contract, sign off on the four "best" teams being chosen for the field, sign off on bowls being used as the semifinal sites and sign off on the title game being bid out. They seem likely to say that they like the selection committee idea, but it seems folly to think this group actually would sign off on the makeup of the committee.

Deciding the makeup of the committee could become contentious. It's one thing to be on the NCAA basketball tournament selection committee and get dinged for seeding a team too low or choosing "Team A" instead of "Team B" for that last at-large spot. It will be quite another trying to choose from among three or four squads for that final spot in a four-team playoff.

The NCAA has taken great pains of late to make the tournament selection process as transparent as possible, to the point of having an annual mock committee made up of media members to show them how the process works.

[Also: Christian Hackenberg, Greg Bryant top Rivals100 All-Challenge team ]

But the football committee will be on a different level. Despite VCU's miracle run to the Final Four as one of the final teams in the field in 2011, the odds of the final at-large team winning the NCAA tourney are astronomical. That won't be the case with the No. 4 team in the football playoffs.

And that's why it won't be a four-team field for very long. The caterwauling and teeth-gnashing that are going to result – not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars that will be waved in front of the faces of folks currently chasing dimes rolling under the couch – makes it a given that a four-team field will become an eight-, 16- or even-24 team field relatively quickly.

Grid bits

• Look at the makeup of the 12-man BCS presidents committee again. If Notre Dame is getting its own seat at the table, why in the world would the Irish give up their football independence?

• Texas senior WR Marquise Goodwin is going to the Olympics. Goodwin, who has 94 career receptions, was the surprise winner of the long jump at the U.S. Olympic Trials on Sunday in Eugene, Ore. His winning leap covered 27 feet, 4 inches.

• Give it up for St. Louis Rams QB Sam Bradford. Bradford, an Oklahoma alum, has donated $500,000 to his alma mater for the construction of a new student-housing facility. Minnesota Vikings RB Adrian Peterson, another former Sooner, donated $1 million for the same project earlier this year.

• Virginia has asked for an eligibility waiver for QB Phillip Sims, who is transferring in from Alabama. Sims said he left Tuscaloosa because of a health matter affecting one of his family members. Sims is a former four-star recruit from Chesapeake, Va. A report in the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch said the school expects to hear back from the NCAA by mid-July on the appeal.

Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports:
Venus Williams suffers earliest Wimbledon exit in 15 years
Jeff Passan: Kevin Youkilis deal jumpstarts compelling trade season
Yahoo! Sports spans the globe to re-live the greatest Summer Olympic moments
Memorable Moments: Kerri Strug vaults to stardom after saving U.S. gymnastics gold