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Alvarez favors finalists picked by committee

MADISON — After several rounds of meetings with more to come, all signs point toward the implementation of a four-team playoff in college football once the current Bowl Championship Series contract expires after the 2013 season.

Conference commissioners still have to haggle over several items before a four-team playoff replaces the flawed BCS system, which has endured more cosmetic surgery than all of Hollywood since its inception in 1998.

Will the four-team playoff be incorporated into the bowl system? Will semifinal games be played at campus sites, with the home team being the higher-seeded team, or will all three games be played at neutral sites? Will the title game be played closer to Jan. 1?

The question that is arguably the most critical and could affect the success of the new system is this:

How will the top four teams be determined?

The BCS has been criticized for many reasons over the years, with some of the harshest words reserved for the lack of consistency and/or transparency involving the computer rankings.

The new system needs to be more transparent, and Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez would welcome the four teams being chosen by a selection committee, similar to the system used in basketball.

“I like a committee and I like a committee that might be diverse enough that maybe you have some national sportswriters in it,” he said recently.

Alvarez suggested individuals such as ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who played quarterback at Ohio State from 1989-’93, could be on the committee.

“(Herbstreit) is neutral, is on top of it, talks to coaches around the country,” Alvarez said. “And every week you come out with your rankings and possibly explain the process.”

The criteria used to rank teams would have to be clear.

“How much does strength of schedule play in?” Alvarez said. “Did you win or lose on the road? Is it margin of victory?

“All those things…you weigh them and you have people that understand football take a look at film and discuss it.”

The current BCS system has three parts—the Harris Interactive Poll, the USA Today coaches’ poll and the average of six computer rankings.

The Football Bowl Championship Subdivision commissioners are set to meet June 20 in Chicago to continue discussing the issue. A plan could be formalized by the end of the summer.

Alvarez believes computers have to be left out of the new system.

“I don’t know how you…I don’t trust it if they don’t tell you the criteria,” he said of the computer ratings. “Coaches want to know what the rules are before the game starts.

“If you don’t know the criteria and how you are programming it…I’d question: ‘Why am I ranked fifth by everybody (else) and 17th by a computer? What did you put in there?’”