BCS weighing NEW bowl plan

[cygnus34]

BCS weighing new bowl plan

By Mark Blaudschun, Globe Staff  |  May 22, 2004

Bowl Championship Series officials are considering a plan that would create "two" Sugar, Orange, Rose, and Fiesta bowls on a rotating basis as a way of handling the expansion from eight to 10 teams in the BCS games.

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The concept, called the "Five-into-Four" plan, would have the four bowls played on New Year's Day and then the championship game played the following week at one of those same sites.

The BCS must make a change because the NCAA presidents forced the BCS to add a bowl to provide more opportunities for non-BCS schools. The BCS is also being courted by nine other bowls that would like to host the fifth BCS game.

According to a source yesterday within the BCS, a decision on the "Five-into-Four" plan could be voted on as early as the conference commissioners meetings in Boston next month.

"Nothing is done yet, but it looks like that's where they are going," the source said.

Outgoing BCS chairman Mike Tranghese said the process needs to move along because television negotiations between the Rose Bowl and ABC begin June 11 and before any money figures can be seriously discussed, a configuration plan needs to be in place.

"I hope it will be done by [the conference commissioners meetings]" said Tranghese, who was in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., yesterday for the Big East spring meetings next week. "We have to start moving."

The plan picked up additional speed when the Rose Bowl started pushing for it as a way to maintain its tie-ins with the Big Ten and Pacific 10 each season, as well as hosting the BCS national championship game every fourth season.

The plan would be as follows: In a given year, one of the four BCS bowls would be designated as the national championship game, as in previous seasons, with the two top teams in the BCS rankings -- which is expected to be an equal mixture of the Associated Press poll, the coaches' poll, and a consensus computer poll -- playing for the title.

With that game in place -- it would probably have to be played at least a week after the conclusion of the other BCS games -- the old BCS formula of four games among the Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, and Orange would be used.

The Rose Bowl would have its traditional Big Ten-Pac-10 matchup, while the Fiesta would be anchored to the Big 12 champion, the Sugar Bowl anchored to the Southeastern Conference champion, and the Orange Bowl would most likely have the Atlantic Coast Conference champion as its anchor team. The Big East would have a slot for its champion, but it would roam each season.

The new plan would double the number of available at-large slots to four. The sticking point in this scenario would be the continued opposition from the presidents who oppose playing any games into the "second semester," which they have determined is beyond Jan. 5.

If the presidents stand firm, the BCS will likely go back to a new five bowl rotation. In that scenario, the Gator Bowl looms as the likely choice to join the big four.

A positive factor of this plan is that ABC, which currently holds the television rights to all BCS games, might push the games into a New Year's Eve, New Year's Day lineup, which would put New Year's Day back as the marquee day for college football, instead of having it dominated by bowl games between conference runners-up, as is now the case.

[bulls96go]

without the inclusion of opportunity for the non bcs schools this becomes a problem

[smazza]

the can't sell a fifth game