Report: Big Ten, Pac-12 ADs Agree on "Plus-One" National Title Playoff

According to an article published by Bud Withers of the Seattle Times, a seed calling for a limited playoff format featuring a "plus one" scenario may have been planted underneath the sunny skies of Newport Beach, CA, at a meeting that took place between athletic directors of the Pac-12 and Big 10 conferences.

For those fans who have been calling for a playoff system for college football, news that a consensus of this non-binding agreement can be looked as portending of possible discussion—and perhaps even action—on changing the current BCS system that many find often confusing and unfair.

In the plan discussed by the AD's of both conferences, an extra bowl game would be added to the existing system to create a format in which the top four teams, which would still be determined by the BCS system, would play to determine who participates in the national championship.

According to the article, the Rose Bowl wouldn't participate in the semifinals in return for keeping the Pac-12-Big 10 matchup and the right to host the national championship game every five years.

What isn't clear is how the playoff format would change if one or both of the Pac-12 or Big 10 participants are among the top four teams ranked going into the semifinal playoff.

Obviously, additional clarification and fine-tuning of the plan would have to be forthcoming.

And for those fans calling for a 16- or eight-team playoff, a la NFL style, well, that's probably not going to happen.

Bill Hancock, BCS executive director, was quoted in the story as saying, "I don't hear any groundswell for an NFL-style playoff, from the commissioners or the presidents or the ADs or the coaches."

So for the time being, it appears baby steps will have to be taken in college football's efforts to institute a playoff system.

Even so, there is expected to be a "push back" from a variety of sources, according to the article.

Non-BCS qualifiers will still have the same issues they currently face in trying to crash the party with the big boys.

Also, an extra game is sure to result in a modified schedule that will disturb the sensibilities of academia who will decry the study time it will deprive the student-athlete of.

In addition, travel plans for the fan bases of the two participants of the national championship game will have to be made "on the fly" with a short lead time required.

It should be noted that this meeting and its resulting straw vote consensus is just the beginning of what may be a long process of negotiating, pleading and cajoling by a diverse group of institutions, all of whom have varying stakes in the process.

Nothing will happen quickly and when it does—if it does—expect the final version to look different than what was discussed and voted on Friday.

Still, it is a beginning.

They say you must learn to crawl before you walk and walk before you run.

In terms of a playoff for college football, this constitutes only the very beginning of the crawl stage.

But at least it is a start, and those have to begin somewhere.