Major college football will have a playoff beginning with the 2014-2015 season, BCS conference commissioners and university presidents announced on Tuesday at a press conference televised on ESPN. The presidents approved a proposal from BCS conference commissioners for a four-team seeded playoff during a meeting in Washington, D.C.
The four-team playoff signed off on will run for 12 years. There will be two national semifinal games with the No. 1 team playing the No. 4 team and the No. 2 team playing the No. 3 team. The winners of the semifinal games will move on to play for the national championship. SEC commissioner Mike Slive ruled out an eight or sixteen team playoff citing the constraints of the academic calendar.
While the teams will be selected by a committee, details on how the committee will be selected were not given out during the press conference. The committee will look at a team's win-loss record, strength of schedule, head-to-head records and whether or not they won their conference.
Other details fans will have to wait on: what this playoff which replaces the BCS will be called, how the playoff will be funded and which bowls will serve as hosts for the playoff.