Pac-12 leaders eye switch from BCS to playoff system

Leaders of the Pac-12 Conference agreed in principle Saturday to try to end college football's Bowl Championship Series, proposing its replacement with a playoff system that would allow only conference winners to play for college football's national title.

"I don't hear anyone saying business as usual is acceptable," said Edward Ray, Oregon State University's president and chairman of the Pac-12 universities' CEO group. "We need change."

Though a formal vote was not taken among the top Pac-12 university officials who attended Saturday, they expect that to occur at their next meeting later this year. If the Pac-12 makes its formal recommendation as expected in June, it would come just before BCS bowls prepare late this summer to start negotiations on BCS contract renewals. The BCS contracts expire in early 2014.

The Pac-12 action is not unexpected. Arizona State University President Michael Crow advocated for the idea in Phoenix earlier this year. College football and the BCS have come under increasing criticism amid reports of lax financial oversight and administrative abuses and questions about the fairness of the bowl-selection system. Presidents and chancellors of the Pac-12 Conference schools discussed the future of the BCS on Saturday behind closed doors at a hotel adjacent to Staples Center, home of the Pac-12 men's and women's basketball championship games.

What emerged, according to Ray and Crow, was consensus that the current BCS system needs to significantly change and that it should be replaced by a playoff system that may or may not include current BCS bowl members, including the Valley's Fiesta Bowl. However, the Pac-12 chief executives want to protect the iconic Rose Bowl's status as an elite postseason game in which only representatives from the Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences play. In a playoff scenario, it might or might not be one of the playoff games.

thanks to AZ Central.com