Committee told not to consider playoffs

Forget about a college football playoff for now.

The committee overseeing changes to the Bowl Championship Series won't consider using a tournament to determine the national champion despite pleas to open up the postseason to more schools.

The BCS Presidential Oversight Committee on Monday directed the six conference commissioners to come up with proposals for changing the BCS without a playoff.

"I'm skeptical a national champion could be determined in a playoff without infringing on a student athlete's welfare," said Penn State president Graham Spanier, a member of the committee.

The panel also said it would meet with representatives from the other five Division I-A conferences Sept. 8 in Chicago to hear their concerns about the current system.

Tulane president Scott Cowen, who is holding a teleconference with 44 other university presidents from non-BCS schools on Tuesday, said the invitation was a positive step.

But he was disappointed that the committee refused to consider a playoff, which the NCAA has in all other divisions and sports and which would improve access for schools from non-power conferences.

"If we're going to have a dialogue, all options have to be open," Cowen said. "If they are eliminating options before the dialogue, then what are we talking about?

"No matter how good we are, we can't get into BCS bowls. The rankings are biased against non-BCS schools."

New system, old results

In 1998, Tulane went undefeated but could only play in the Liberty Bowl because it was ranked 11th in the BCS standings. Teams from non-BCS conferences are guaranteed a bid to one of the four bowl games if they are ranked in the top six.

But in the 20 years before the BCS started, only one school other than Notre Dame that is not currently in those six conferences played in one of the series' four bowls.

"The trend in the BCS is not very different than what existed in the decades before the BCS," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said. "The only thing that really has changed is we've created a 1 vs. 2 game."

Money is a major issue. The Rose, Fiesta, Sugar and Orange bowls generate more than $100 million a year for the BCS conferences. The BCS gives about $8 million a year to the schools from the other five conferences.

The BCS was formed in 1998 in an effort to match the top two teams in a national title game. The system takes the champions from the six major conferences -- Pac-10, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC, SEC and Big East -- and two at-large teams to play in the BCS bowls.