College Football to Have a Four Team Playoff by 2014

Finally, after all the years of frustration with the BCS system, that boiled over with last years ridiculous rematch of LSU and Alabama, which may very well have been one of the worst title games of all time.

The conference commissioners have heard the fans disgust with the BCS systems that is one of the most biased and convoluted systems ever devised. What have they replaced it with? Well, its still the BCS...sort of...just with one extra game. First off, how does it work?

Essentially, from what has been published thus far, a selection committee will pick the four teams, using guidelines such as strength of schedule, head-to-head results and won-loss record, after the regular season. The committee will give preference to conference champions. The makeup of the committee is to be determined, but it will likely be about 20 conference commissioners and college athletic directors. From their, the teams that are selected will play in basically what are now the BCS bowls, in rotating cities, with the championship being similar to the NFL's Super Bowl, in that cities get to bid for the championship game.

Its a start, but already there are a few glaring issues. The four teams are still essentially selected by the BCS. granted their are now four teams instead of two.

Issue number one, who is on the selection committee? How do they get to be on the selection committee? What sort of quality control elements will be in place, and what sort of oversight will this committee have?

Issue two, with most of the people in the media being an absolute pawn of the SEC, how can we assure ourselves that this is not an SEC dominated move. Looking at the very very early rules of the playoff, there is no longer any automatic qualifies, but there is also no limit to how many teams a conference can get into the playoffs. If the stars aline, in a way similar to last year, it would not be impossible to see three SEC schools in the four team playoff, due to the fact that the selection is from the same criteria that the BCS is, the same BCS that permitted a rematch in colleges biggest game.

Issue three, money. The bowls are about to go through a great purge. where only the strongest will survive. My condolences to the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, but I would not expect that to be around much longer. The other, larger issue with the Bowls, is that teams are already losing money on them. For example UCONN in their BCS appearance ended up owing over two million dollars. LSU is another example, who got charged nearly $600,000 for tickets for players families, and tickets for the band, something with is generally complimentary. Further showing that the BCS and the Bowls couldn't care less about the teams, the fans, or the sport, but truly only care about money.

Do not be surprised to see the playoff number blow up to 8 before its all said and done.

What do you guys think of the playoff idea? What do you think the problems are? Will this affect Texas Tech? Let us know below.