BCS Meeting: What to Expect (and Not Expect) from Playoff Discussions

There are many disagreements throughout college football, but a college football playoff is not one of them. Well, maybe there are still a few people out there that believe the current BCS format works, but the majority knows better.

The good news is that college football has finally received your message and will continue to try and hammer out a deal that will correctly determine a national champion.

Earlier this week, 11 conference commissioners, a few BCS officials, a BCS attorney and Notre Dame's athletic director held a four-hour meeting in Dallas to begin laying the groundwork for a change in the BCS system.

The plan is to continue to meet throughout the week, next month and later in the year to try and get closer to creating the change that the majority wants in college football.

What to expect

The only thing that can pretty much be guaranteed in this whole process is that however things are decided, the playoff format will include four teams. It won't include eight, 16 or any other crazy amount of teams that some have suggested in the past.

“I would say obviously eight or 16 team (playoff formats) are not on the radar screen,” said a person attending the BCS meeting.

It will likely include the top-four teams in the poll, and they'll battle it out to determine the champion. Now, how these top-four teams are determined and where they play these playoff games is a whole different question.

The other thing that can be guaranteed is the fact that none of this will take place right away. The next BCS cycle doesn't happen until 2014, which means that a deal could take place today (won't happen), and it won't take effect until after the 2013 regular season.

Continue to suffer through at least two more seasons of the BCS, everyone. 

What not to expect

Don't expect this to fix things in college football. This sport is still going to have controversy and is going to still cause arguments between you and your friends. There will never be a perfect system, as there are too many teams and too many conferences.

With only four teams, the fifth and sixth ranked teams will make an argument for why they should be the ones participating in the playoffs. Non-BCS teams who rarely ever reach the top five in the polls but go undefeated will still cry when they aren't allowed to play with the big boys.

Yes, it will be a new system, but the headaches will continue.

Another thing is that this playoff talk is not guaranteed. Don't expect this to change overnight, and if a deal is approved, it will likely happen a year or two down the road. Details such as how the teams are determined, where the playoff teams will play, how the other bowls will take place, scheduling and so much more still have to be ironed out.

All this playoff stuff sounds good right now, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Randy Chambers is a B/R featured columnist that covers college football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or [e-mail].