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Associated Press
WASHINGTON - College football will finally have a playoff. Come 2014, the BCS is dead.

A committee of university presidents on Tuesday approved the BCS commissioners' plan for a four-team playoff to start in the 2014 season. .....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... malertNEWS

Some ESPN wonk just said the teams with a chance at the playoffs will come from the SEC, ACC, Big 10.5, Big 12 and Pac-12 (or whatever it's called this week).

Does that nullify value of us moving to the Big East?

The value of us to the BE will be increased money over and above CUSA. With the TV markets we have in the BE there should still be a significant improvement. Would I rather we be in one of the biggies, sure. But I still think we are much better off.

Doesn't this just consolidate the power of the major conferences?

You want a playoff!?! Okay, we'll give you one in title but it's still just a party of the top 4 from the Big12, Big10, SEC and Pac12. Sorry ACC, sorry Big East; we'd select a 2-loss SEC team before we ever selected you. Great, hope everyone is happy!

Big East will be a league of the best of the rest. It should be considered right below the five biggies but above CUSA, MWC, Sunbelt, and MAC. Not what we hoped for but still better than we were.
There will be 12 teams in the six top bowls, so if we play a difficult non conference schedule and go undefeated we should make one of the open slots.

An undefeated BE team with a solid non-conf. schedule will have a chance at the top 4 too. The selection committee will like to avoid controversy at all costs.

NY Pony wrote:An undefeated BE team with a solid non-conf. schedule will have a chance at the top 4 too. The selection committee will like to avoid controversy at all costs.

Agreed. Remember, TCU finished #4 in the country just a couple of years ago, and under this system it would have been very difficult for them to be overlooked for a 1-loss team. It makes it much more palatable when it's 4 teams being selected vs. two, even if it doesn't eliminate all controversy.

This is really just a +1 anyway...we'll get the playoff in a few years when the money really flows in and they go to 8.

Run the table schedule some "Big Five" teams each year. Okay, I'd like to start a series with an SEC team, Vanderbilt. A Big XII team, TCU. An ACC team, Duke. Unfortunately, that won't get us where we want to be. I suspect we'll have to schedule games with the likes of Auburn/Tennessee/AL/AK, USC/UCLA, FSU/VT, Ohio St./Neb., or UT/OU to get noticed. At least one game per year against one of those teams. Good luck getting a home and home on that especially with ESPN whispering in their ear, "don't schedule the BE on the road".

With 4 non-conf. games including 1 FBS and TCU we aren't that far off from what we'll need if we run the table. There are some good programs in the new BE.

so is ACC in the playoff hunt or not? If they are why not the new BE - since the new BE is stronger then the new ACC?

To me, the ACC and Big East are in the same boat. To make it in the playoff they need to be undefeated and play a decent OOC schedule plus have the champions of some of the other conferences such as P10/B10 have 2 losses. Could probably throw the SEC runner up and Notre Dame as teams that would need two losses for an undefeated ACC champ or Big East champ to pass them.

If both were undefeated and had similar OOC schedules then I expect that the ACC team would get the nod above the Big East team. Hopefully in a couple of years there might be some recognition that the Big East is better than the ACC, but that would not be acknowledged by most until it was impossible to deny.

As others have said, I see it as positive for the Big East compared to the BCS. In both cases you had to be undefeated and have a decent OOC slate, but in the BCS you had to hope that somehow got you into the top 2 while now you just have to hope for the top 4.

The more pressing issue is what Bowl does the Big East Champion get tied to. That is where the Big East may get left out. If you noticed it was announced that there would be three "Contract Bowls" that would house the Champions of the Big 10/ PAC 12( Rose Bowl), Big 12/SEC( probably Jerry World), and the ACC (Orange Bowl). No where did they mention the Big East. So it appears the Big East doesn't have its Champion guaranteed a spot in one of the remaining 4 Bowls after the two Semi Final Bowls are selected like the other Big Conferences do.It will be interesting over the next several weeks/months to see what happens with the Big East Champion.

I hope the Orange Bowl.

probably the bone thrown to BE and even ACC is now there are going to be 6 designated major bowls

That's what I heard was that they will still be eligible for autobids to the other four major bowls (since two will be used for the semi-final games) which will of course rotate (except the Rose which still will get B10/P12 champion unless...).