First of all: Before we go on, don't get too excited, because it's nothing official or anything. But yeah, Bud Withers of the Seattle Times checked in Friday night with some pretty exciting news for playoff proponents (emphasis added):
Athletic directors of the newly expanded Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences found consensus on a "plus-one" football national-championship proposal at meetings early this week that could signal movement toward a revamped Bowl Championship Series.
The athletic directors, meeting in Newport Beach, Calif., discussed several possible postseason football formats, including the status quo. It's part of a process to give conference commissioners input from their leagues for possible changes to the BCS after its TV contract runs out in January 2014.
The proposed format the ADs favored in a straw vote calls for adding a BCS bowl, probably the Cotton, and seeding the top four teams, which would play semifinals in two BCS bowls on a rotating basis. Presumably, the current BCS formula still would be used to rank teams. Winners would advance to a title game in what has become known as a "plus-one" format.
