4-Team College Football Playoff Right Move Despite Big Ten's Quiet Disapproval

In 2014, the BCS will be no more. In its place will be an honest-to-goodness four-team playoff. That just feels good to read and write, doesn't it?

Against the frequent protestations of the Big Ten—both public and private—the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee approved a four-team playoff system with six as-yet undetermined bowl sites rotating in to host semifinal games.

And in case the Big Ten's representative of chancellors and presidents Harvey Perlman's glum face (via @BryanDFischer) doesn't tell the whole story, he even reiterated his earlier statements of disapproval at the press conference. Per Joe Schad of ESPN:

"

Solemn Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman says the Big Ten will support a plan that was their third option

— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) June 26, 2012"

Remember, it wasn't too long ago that Perlman was telling reporters after Big Ten meetings that the Big Ten presidents' first choice was the status quo, and the second choice was a plus-one system that's basically the same as the BCS right now, except with the two championship teams chosen after the slate of bowls instead of before. 

But just like the Rose Bowl's insistence on maintaining its Big Ten/Pac-12 arrangement even when only one team from the two conferences was part of the four-team playoffs (an idea that was effectively napalmed by everyone outside the Big Ten and Pac-12), Perlman's protestations were ignored in favor of a solid, sane and simple four-team playoff.

And in the end, despite the Big Ten's odd ideas, that's all fans wanted: four teams and no weirdness. The Big Ten wanted that weirdness—and it got bowl sites instead of campus sites, which, argggghhhhh why do you hate the fans?—but by and large sanity reigns today, and that is such a wonderful thing.

Be happy, folks. This is the result of a lot of hard work by fans voicing their disapproval and it wouldn't have happened otherwise. And if you need further proof on that, just look at the Big Ten folding like a tent when this playoff system we're about to enjoy is pretty obviously the last thing it wanted to give its fans.