Associated Press
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. ó As they kicked off three days of meetings at an oceanfront resort, the Bowl Championship Series overseers appear to have a better chance of getting a sunburn than making any major changes in the controversial system.
iI continue to sense a certain comfort level, if you will, with the current status of things with the BCS,î BCS coordinator John Swofford said after Mondayís session. iI think itís been a pretty stable few years.î
Still, the commissioners of the 11 major college football conferences, along with Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White, will have their most detailed discussions to date of the plus-one model, which could use two bowls as semifinals and another as a national title game, with the four participants seeded.
That conversation will take place Wednesday, with Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive leading it.
iWeíll have a pretty specific discussion about that,î Swofford said. iUp to this point, a lot of it, in some circles, has been conceptual. At some point, it needs to be a reasonably specific discussion and the potential ramifications of what that might be. Weíll get there while weíre here.î
With negotiations on the next television contract set to begin in the fall, thereís pressure to leave South Florida with some sense of what the BCS will look like after the present Fox deal expires in two years. Foxís current four-year, $320 million contract runs through the 2010 bowls, and the network is interested in being part of the next cycle.
iThereís a lot to be done coming out of these meetings, and these meetings will help us lay the foundation of where we go with the next cycle, including format, television, the bowl partnerships,î Swofford said.