The plus-one is coming! Will it be aesthetically pleasing?

I’m guessing this year’s offseason fixation will be the new, improved BCS.  Matt Hayes reports that a new format is a done deal.  It’s just that nobody has a clue what that format is.

… A national playoff is coming, everyone.

It’s only a matter of what it looks like.

“It gets done,” a high-ranking BCS official told Sporting News Monday evening.

Here’s how: over the next six months, the leaders of the sport will meet at least four times to iron out a plan that protects the importance of the regular season—the one aspect BCS leaders believe separates the game from every other—while embracing a new frontier for the poll-driven sport.

It begins Tuesday here in New Orleans with a meeting of conference commissioners, and includes meetings in Dallas in February and Miami in April. Another meeting in June is also likely, especially considering the magnitude of the potential change.

When asked what the playoff would look like, a high-ranking BCS source said there are “at least 60” different options on the table, and that includes everything from a four-team playoff to one game after all the bowls.

Boy, that sounds promising.  Although I will say this in the plus-one’s favor – if it will get Dan Wetzel to STFU about a playoff, I’m all for it.

… Miles even made the case postgame that LSU should be in consideration for the AP title based on its season-long body of work, including the previous triumph over Alabama.

“That’s for the voters to figure,” Miles said.

When the coach of a team that was shut out in the championship game is arguing that he should win the championship anyway, the system is an unqualified disaster.

The sport’s power brokers will meet here Tuesday to discuss the future, and many have predicted significant changes. If there is one positive from this tractor pull, it’s that it should help continue the groundswell toward a playoff, even if it’s just four teams to start.

Catch that “to start” there?  I also like how Miles lobbying for the top spot in the AP poll (not that it worked) proves that the BCS is an “unqualified disaster”.

Admittedly, Wetzel is so far around the bend on the subject of a football playoff that he can’t see straight, but there’s one part of his argument that should be troubling.

… Bad games happen. They’ve happened in Super Bowls. They’ve happened in the regular season. They’ve happened in all sports at all levels.

When they happen at the conclusion of a season that uses a system so universally loathed as the BCS, though, they tend to get cited as a byproduct, not a coincidence.

He’s not the only one making that point.

… The Crimson Tide’s domination of LSU was stunning from the get-go in its breadth and depth. It turns out we had seen enough in the first half to know the final outcome: Total yards, 225-43. First downs, 13-1. Total offensive plays, 41-17. Was this the national championship game, or Alabama’s season-opener against Kent State?

That’s not a question the BCS wants asked about its crown jewel, but it’s the question we are forced to ask after one of the most lopsided and unsatisfying college football finales in years. Unsatisfying: the perfect word for the BCS almost any season, and certainly for this one.

And this is with Alabama winning.  God only knows what we’d be hearing right now if the rematch had proven to be a dominating confirmation of the regular season result.

What bugs me here is the idea that the sin of last night’s game not being entertaining can be laid at the feet of the BCS.  It’s one thing to argue that D-1’s postseason needs to be restructured to avoid the unfairness of ’03 and ’04.  It’s something totally different to call for avoiding an unexciting outcome.

Since there’s no way to guarantee a satisfying title game, what we’re left with, I suppose, is either ginning up the rules like the NFL periodically does to promote more offense, or adding the Cinderella factor to the college football postseason.  Be still, my heart.

I have no idea if this is where the game is really headed, but if there are at least sixty options on the table as Hayes suggests, I’d say just about anything is a possibility for proposal.  The power brokers calling the shots here shouldn’t exactly fill us with confidence about doing the right thing, either.

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UPDATE:  Even Michael Elkon indulges in a little of this thinking, albeit wistfully.

… We’ll never get to see how the Tide would have done against Andrew Luck or Oklahoma State’s version of the Air Raid or Oregon’s version of the spread ‘n’ shred.  Imagine Andrew Luck trying to decipher one of Nick Saban’s shifting coverage schemes.  Imagine Dre Kirkpatrick covering Justin Blackmon.  Imagine DeAnthony Thomas in space against Donta Hightower.  One of the benefits of expanding college football’s postseason is that we would get more matchups like that, but we are denied that opportunity.  I hate ending the college football season on a note of frustration, but that’s how I feel this morning after having seen a truly great defense test itself against a mediocre offense.