New College Football Playoff Gets A Name
PASADENA, Calif. (CBSMiami/AP) — The long national nightmare that was the Bowl Championship Series is no more. From now on, the new playoff system in college football will be called, "The College Football Playoff."
The BCS conference commissioners announced the name of the new postseason system that starts in 2014 Tuesday.
The website www.collegefootballplayoff.com is already up and running and allowing fans to vote on a new logo. And there also is a Twitter handle: (at)cfbplayoff.
For you conspiracy theorists out there, the website has been registered to ESPN since the early part of the last decade.
Premiere Sports Management in Overland Park, Kan., was hired to help come up with a name and brand the new system. A committee of commissioners handled the naming of the new system.
Before the news was reported, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said he'd be happy with whatever was selected.
"I'm am not good with names — obviously," Delany said with a smile, referring to the Big Ten's division names, Legends and Leaders, that produced so much negative feedback the conference has already decided to change them.
The new postseason format will create two national semifinals to be played New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, with the winners advancing. The six bowls in the playoff rotation will host marquee, BCS-type games on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day during the seasons they do not host a semifinal.
"I don't think you can ever go too wrong calling something what it is," Scott said. "Things that make sense tend to stand the test of time."
Three semifinal spots have already been decided: the Rose, Orange and Sugar bowls.
Four other bowls have bid for the final three spots. The clear front-runners are the Cotton, Chick-fil-A and Fiesta. The Holiday Bowl in San Diego also put in a bid, but even its organizers have acknowledged they are a long shot at best to land the game.
Those decisions will be announced Wednesday.
The first semifinals will be played at the Rose and Sugar bowls.
The site of the first national championship game in the new system will also be determined at these meetings and the finalists are Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the billion dollar home of the NFL team and the Cotton Bowl, and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., home of the Buccaneers.
Arlington is the favorite to land that first championship game, but the competition from Tampa has been serious.
Also on the agenda this week for the commissioners will be the composition of the selection committee that will set the field for the playoff. They have said they would like the committee to be similar to the one that picks the teams for the NCAA basketball tournament, made up of conference commissioners and athletic directors.
(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
