Big Ten presidents prefer status quo but will accept 4 best-team model

Big Ten chancellors and presidents prefer to maintain the current Bowl Championship Series format but will consider a four-team playoff consisting of the nation's four best teams if it improves the sport and preserves bowl tradition.

In a teleconference Monday morning, Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman said Big Ten presidents would vote for the "status quo" if it were an option and added that a plus-one model, which uses current bowl games and elevates two teams afterward to a championship game, is the second preference.

"Beyond that ... while it would not be our top two preferences, we would certainly be in a position to consider a four-team playoff inside the bowls that would preserve our connection to the Rose Bowl and would move things forward," Perlman said. "But we are trying to be open to the conversations that ought to take place between the conference presidents."

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany openly has discussed many options for a four-team playoff, from a champions-only model floated by former SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer, to one with home sites. Delany said there's a place for conference champions in a four-team event but, ultimately, the playoff must consist of the best four teams.

"I think the question is, whether or not a computerized poll managed the way one is today is an appropriate proxy for the four best teams," Delany said. "I totally agree we should have the four best teams."

Delany railed on the method for selecting the current two BCS participants, which relies upon a coaches' poll and computer formulas with undisclosed accounting.

"I think everybody recognizes that the present poll system is not good proxy because it's flawed," Delany said. "It's not transparent. It has people who have a stake in the outcome voting. It measures teams before they play a game. The computer doesn't have an eye, so the eye test is missing. If there's an injury, it can't be taken into consideration. We're open to the discussion. We think champions and on-field performance should matter."

Both Perlman and Delany "feel comfortable" with a committee selecting the four teams, provided the process is transparent. Delany wants the semifinals played at bowl locations with an open bid by all cities for the national title game. Delany said the process could drag throughout the summer and be completed in the fall. He's also unsure of playoffs' financial value to the sport's television partners.

"They won't know what they're selling until we reach closure on the model, the who and the how," Delany said. "When that happens, then they will be able to take the property as it's defined into the marketplace, probably in September or October of 2012."

While the status quo is the top choice, Perlman said "we're also realistic" that the BCS system will change. The league wants to maintain its current relationship with the Rose Bowl, which annually generates the second-best television ratings behind only the BCS championship. That's why a true plus-one, which would allow the league to preserve the Pac-12/Big Ten match-up in the Rose Bowl, is the most appealing beyond the current system.

"We don't find the fault with the system that a lot others do," Delany said. "We think it has served us well, although obviously over time it's battered and criticized. Any system that receives that much criticism and that little support I think suffers from that.

"My hope is whatever we do -  if we move forward together - that we support it. That we understand it's not perfect and do it in the best interest of college football to make it a great experience for the fans and the players and the coaches and we get away from this constant drumbeat of criticism because no system is perfect. I don't care if it's a pre-BCS, a BCS or post-BCS system."