This is what Jim Delany means by “settling it on the field”, sports fans:
… The plans range from a long-discussed “plus one” format — after the bowls play out, selecting two teams to meet for the national championship — to a heretofore undisclosed four-team playoff proposal that could expand the semifinals to preserve an annual Big Ten-vs.-Pacific-12 matchup in the Rose Bowl.
In the latter plan, the four highest-ranked teams at the end of the regular season would meet in semifinals unless the Big Ten or Pac-12 champion, or both, were among the top four. Those leagues’ teams still would meet in the Rose, and the next highest-ranked team or teams would slide into the semis. The national championship finalists would be selected after those three games.
They could change the name of the postseason from “BCS” to “Preservation of the Big Ten’s Relevance in the Postseason” Series, if they need to make the point of this nonsense any clearer. And don’t you love this spin?
… The “four team plus” concept could be a means of selling the Pac-12 and long-resistant Big Ten on stepping into the playoff waters. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, in particular, has expressed concern that a modest, four-team plan would whet appetites and inevitably lead to a larger-scale playoff down the road.
Yes, morons, Jim Delany is insisting that you have to sell him on a plus-one at this point.
The biggest joke of all here is that somehow Delany thinks if he gets this through, he’ll still be able to hold the line on limited playoffs. There’s no way something this convoluted won’t lead to further playoff expansion after a few years of everyone bitching about the problems it creates.
Playoff fans are such suckers.
By the way, how can you tell when Bill Hancock is spinning?
“The underlying theme of all this,” Hancock said, “is to protect the regular season. That keeps coming up and keeps coming up and keeps coming up. We have the best regular season in sports, and we don’t want to mess with it.”
When his lips move, of course.
Get The Picture 
I’m almost gleeful thinking about the reaction playoff advocates will have if the only change is bowls playing out just as they always have, almost random matchups, and then the top 2 at the end of that according to the BCS play in another game. What an improvement.
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The Axis of Evil: Delany, Scott and Friends
“Scott’s career in athletics extends back to his captaincy of Harvard’s tennis team, where he was named an All-American, earned a B.A. in European History in 1986, and gained a lifelong appreciation for the importance of maintaining a careful balance between academics and sports. He went on to play tennis professionally on the ATP circuit, winning one title, and then going on to serve for more than a decade in key posts, including Chief Operating Officer, President of ATP Properties, and Executive Vice President of the International Group. In these roles, which included postings in Sydney, Monte Carlo and London, he was credited with significantly growing the global popularity of men’s tennis, establishing the Tennis Masters Cup as one of the sport’s most successful events, negotiating the renewal of the ATP’s 13-year partnership with Mercedes-Benz — which remains one of the preeminent sponsorship agreements in tennis history — and launching tournaments in such developing regions as China and the Persian Gulf.”
http://www.pac-12.org/ABOUT/Staff/LarryScott.aspx
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My BS meter just blew up.
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this would give the Big Ten and PAC 12 a huge advantage in landing teams in the BCS title game.
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Yeah, I don’t think Delany actually thinks this will happen.
Delany is publicly posturing an extreme position so that when real negotiations occur, he can ‘compromise’ into something he still prefers. Same thing happened the last 3 years when he said there’s no way he’d be for playoff. Now that playoff discussions have entered the realm he’s comfortable discussing, he’s loosening his stance appears ready to compromise.
Maybe I’m giving him too much credit. But when you’re negotiating and want to sell something for $20, you don’t start your initial offer at $20. You start high, say, $30. Then the other party says 10, then you say 25, then they say 15, then end up at 20. It’s just part of a long-term negotiation process, in my opinion.
Even if I’m wrong, the Pac-12 and Big Ten still have legitimate value to protect in the Rose Bowl. You don’t willingly devalue your own assets unless you’re gaining other value as well.
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The Rose Bowl is already devalued and Delaney knows it. It’s called a “Red Herring”, not negotiation. Delaney says “Please, Oh Please, Don’t throw me in the Briar Patch” by connecting the Rose Bowl with anything else. There is not anything that can keep the Rose Bowl from being dropped from the Natl Champ rotation if they persist in having those two conferences lock up the contract for use. Horse manure. If other conferences, notably the SEC, are pushed out and PAC12/Big10 act like they could play games with that arrangement, then it is off anyway. They can’t play games with it. It ain’t in their contract. The Rose Bowl Committee decides who plays in Pasadena.
These Yahoos are going to just muddy the water and crank up any number of outrageous proposals that will mimic Senate filibuster without Cloture. The language they use here leaves no other interpretation else why would they bring it up?
The name of the game is how hardboiled can Slive be when playing this type of obfuscation hardball? He better team up quickly with the ACC, Big East, Mac and any other bigger conferences, strike a deal and hardball those two SOB conferences back into line. THEN talk about playoffs.
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Everyone seems to forget that no championship would be valid right now if the SEC does not participate. Can any other conference, or even two conferences say that?
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I don’t understand how the version of the “plus one” mentioned is any better than what we have now. You’re still going to have the same issues selecting the 2 teams to play in the title game. Having everyone play another game after the regular season isn’t necessarily going to make the selection any clearer.
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Enough football, Senator, Hot Tuna is coming to Tally. How about a little musical palate cleanser? Dog Down Yonder, got yo’ ears on?
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I don’t think http://www.firetheRoseBowl.com would be appropriate, but maybe it is time for the SEC, Big12, ACC & Big East to form: http://www.BoycotttheRoseBowl.com
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A slight variation:
Top Four teams in the semis, unless one or both of them are B1G/P12. In that case, the Rose Bowl can, at their discretion, keep their B1G/P12 match-up, opening one or two spots in the playoff for teams unworthy of Rose Bowl participation.
There. Problem solved.
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+1
You don’t want to participate in the playoff? Fine. Have fun watching the National Championship on TV at home.
It’s funny that Big Ten fans hate SEC fans for “bragging” about the national titles yet they, and I’m not just talking about Delany and Scott here, are incredibly pompous when talking about the Rose Bowl. The truth of the matter is that they don’t hate the SEC for what they perceive to be “bragging”. They hate the SEC because, by winning all these titles, the SEC has forced the media to stop giving preferential treatment to their conferences. They’re like spoiled children who are no longer getting their way.
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It was because of SEC victories that the Rose Bowl got roped into that cabal. Georgia’s victory in the early 40s was one of the last games SEC played in the Rose Bowl. Now it has become meaningless by not attracting top teams.
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