After years of begging for it, Division I-A college football fan are finally going to get their playoff. It became official yesterday when the Presidential Oversight Committee gave a thumbs up to the four-team playoff plan that had been offered by the conference commissioners last week. The plan starts after the 2014 season so the first title game under the plan won’t happen until Jan. 15, 2015.
There will be two semi-final games on Dec. 31st that will rotate between the Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta Bowl and two more that will be named later (presumably the Cotton will be one). The Championship game will be the first Monday that’s at least 6 days after Jan. 1st. It will be played at a bid-upon site, much like the Super Bowl is now.
The four teams will be chosen by a committee that will consider record, strength of schedule, head-to-head competition and conference standing. But to qualify a team does not have to be a conference champ to be chosen. That was important especially to the SEC, which has had at least two teams play in BCS Major Bowl game each of the last six years, including last year’s National Title game where Alabama beat LSU.