The "plus-one" format continued to generate discussion Tuesday as a possible addition to the current BCS after the 2013 season.
Just don't expect any details yet about what the college postseason will look like, probably not until the end of the summer. They don't exist now.
If you thought the current Bowl Championship Series system was complicated, imagine trying to construct its successor. Then you can understand why 11 conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick spent 4 1/2 hours at the Grand Hyatt looking at the big picture.
"Very broad," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said. "No ideas eliminated."
Added Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson, in a comment appropriate for the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport venue: "My takeaway is that we're still at 30,000 feet."
Maybe. But signs and the calendar point to a four-team, plus-one model as a more likely instrument of change. The current BCS agreement expires following the January 2014 bowl games.
For one, the plus-one wouldn't be nearly the radical change from the current BCS. Eight- or 16-team playoff proposals appear be long shots, sources familiar with the discussion said. With just four teams involved, the regular season would still retain its meaning.
If there was any recurring theme from BCS executive director Bill Hancock and the conference commissioners, it was the huge reverence commanded by the 12-game schedule.
"All of us want to protect the regular season," said SEC commissioner Mike Slive, whose league has produced the past six BCS champions. "It's the greatest regular season in sports. At the same, we have a responsibility, so how do we make the postseason consistent with the good of the game, long term?"
As the meaning broke up, Delany offered what seemed to be a cryptic bit of information from the meeting.
"Looking at academic calendars," Delany said. "Looking at what may be possible."
Hancock confirmed that the commissioners took a long look at the fall semester final exam calendar Tuesday. They discovered the dates for exams among BCS members range from Dec. 2-21.
"The group is not adamant," Hancock said, "but they really want to avoid playing games during that window."
He also said that the commissioners want to schedule any championship game closer to Jan. 1. This year's LSU-Alabama national title game was played on Jan. 9.
That leaves a small window to fit in any sort of playoff, especially with concerns about Christmas and NFL playoff conflicts.
Anything beyond four teams starts looking awfully problematic.
Even the "plus-one," which would essentially pair the top four teams in a semifinals and championship game, has plenty of unsolved questions.
Would the plus-one be seeded? Would it incorporate the current bowls and possibly open the door to the AT&T Cotton Bowl in the rotation? Would it incorporate campus sites, a plan being discussed in the Big Ten? Would Cowboys Stadium be a part of any championship site discussion?
The commissioners reconvene Wednesday morning. Another meeting is tentatively scheduled for March 26, again at D/FW, Hancock said. More will follow.
Hancock expects a finished proposal by late summer that would have to be approved by the 12-person NCAA Presidential Oversight Committee. Then the plan could be presented to ABC/ESPN, which has an exclusive month-long negotiating window beginning Oct. 1.
"This is very complex," Hancock said.
