BCS Reportedly Presenting Four-Team Playoff Option to Conferences

It appears as if college football may eventually have a four-team playoff system, or at the very least, that is what the BCS is pitching to the respective conferences.

Update: Thursday, April 26 at 8:56 p.m. EST

According to ESPN, college football should have a four-team playoff in place by the 2014 season. The 11 Football Bowl Subdivision conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick still have to settle how the four playoff teams will be selected, where and when the two semifinals and a championship game will be played, and how the four current BCS bowl games will fit into the playoff system, if they are at all. 

"A person familiar with the BCS discussions" told ESPN.com that the preferred scenario appears to be incorporating the current BCS bowl games into the semifinals and offering the national championship game to the highest bidder.

According to multiple reports, BCS officials are working on new postseason options, and according to a recent Tweet from Andy Staples of SI.com on Twitter, there's a very big statement to be found in their release:

It's important to note that there are a few options on the table, but take a look at Staples' very next Tweet and let the words really soak in. If his logic is correct, which for all intents and purposes it seems like it is, college football will have a playoff.

Nothing is official and this is all a very big if right now, mind you, but for at least the moment it looks as if college football may be heading toward something that would resemble a playoff.

Take a deep breath.

What Does This Mean?

If this comes true, it means that after all of these years, detractors of the BCS bowl system have finally gotten their wish—playoffs.

Now, it doesn't appear that the BCS and its rankings will be done away with all together, considering that the options are reportedly for four-team playoffs. But at the very least, under this system, the college football season would end with the two teams that got there because of a playoff system.

What Comes Next?

All the information so far seems pretty preliminary, and these eventual options still have to be proposed to the conferences, but if a four-team playoff system is indeed in the works, I don't see how it won't eventually fly.

There's going to have to be a lot of adjustment, and somehow the BCS is going to have to figure out how to keep all the bowls happy, but at the very least it appears as if these discussions can finally start happening.

Perhaps this is the best of both worlds. Maybe it's not exactly what it seems.

Either way, we're talking about playoffs.

Playoffs? Yes, we're talking about playoffs.