A change that was much needed and long overdue for Division I college football has finally been made. A four-team playoff was approved by a presidential oversight committee that will begin in 2014 and continue through the 2025 season. The four teams will be chosen by a selection committee, the semifinals will be held at current bowl sites and the national championship game will be awarded to the highest bidder.
The 11 current BCS conference commissioners were joined by Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick as he presented the proposal to a board of 12 university presidents. It took less than three hours for the group to agree.
How this works: The semifinal games will rotate among six bowl sites and a rotation of the championship game among neutral sites. The semifinals will either be played on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day, and the national title game will be played on “Championship Monday,” which is the first Monday in January that is six or more days after the final semifinal game is played.
There are also three contract bowls, the newly created Champions Bowl, which is a partnership between the Big 12 and SEC, the Rose Bowl, with it’s longstanding tradition between the Big Ten and Pac 12, and a bowl to be determined for the ACC, which is likely to continue its partnership with the Orange Bowl.