By David Jones
Florida Today

The Bowl Championship Series has three years left in its contract with ABC. But talks already have begun that might pave the way for a playoff in 2006.

"I think that is a process that has already begun," Sugar Bowl executive director Paul Hoolahan said. "The discussions are taking place and have been for a while now."

Any changes would have to be approved by the NCAA's Executive Committee and probably would have to be made within the next year to give the television networks enough time to put together appropriate bids. The executive committee, made up of 16 university presidents, meets Jan.14 in Anaheim, Calif.

The Fiesta, Sugar, Orange and Rose are currently affiliated with the BCS and host the national championship game on a rotating basis.

If the NCAA decides to go to a one-game playoff format while continuing the current plan in which one of the BCS bowls is the designated national title game, it could open the door for a fifth bowl to join the mix.

Under one format being discussed, the entire bowl season would be played, then there'd be a re-vote and re-tabulation of the points system to determine which two teams would meet in the national title game.

If one of the four major bowls is held back for the designated championship game, the BCS would need another bowl.

Fiesta Bowl chairman Steve Horrell feels there's a strong possibility the NCAA will accept the one-game playoff. University presidents have been discussing the format for months, and many like it.

"I think last year, the way things turned out, changed the whole perspective for everyone," Horrell said.

Miami ended up playing Nebraska - which didn't win its own division in the Big 12 - for the national title in the Rose Bowl.

The year before, the Hurricanes played in the Sugar Bowl while Florida State met Oklahoma in the national title game, even though Miami beat FSU earlier in the season.

Big moneymakers

Horrell feels many bowl directors would be comfortable with the one-game playoff format - as long as the bowls are still involved. The heart of the issue is protecting the entire bowl system that pays the majority of Division I football bills.

"I can see (having a playoff)," Horrell said. "But I think you better look in the stands and see if anybody's there at the other bowl games."

That's what makes the one-game playoff so attractive to so many. The BCS bowls would still be important because the national title game could come from any of the major bowls.

Another suggestion is reopening the bidding for 2006 and letting cities bid each year on the national title site, much like the format college basketball uses.

The major bowls, of course, would not quietly accept such a plan, making it highly unlikely.

"You've got to figure out: Is a playoff going to mean more money?" Hoolahan said. "I don't think so."

The total revenue from the 2003 BCS games is projected to be $86.8 million - about $81million of which will be distributed within the ACC, Big East, SEC, Pac-10 and Big Ten. Another $5.5 million goes to other Division I-A and I-AA conferences.

More than $250 million will be shared over the next three bowl seasons - assuring financial success for college football. Hoolahan is among those who want to leave the system alone. He notes the BCS has been good for the NCAA and good for the bowls.

Gambling on a new format involving a playoff could be a disaster, creating financial ruin for the bowls and college programs, he said.

"I think that it's not something that can be looked at whimsically. ... The bottom line is, college football has made a lot of money under the current system, and the most important thing is to keep Division I-A football healthy and the system productive," he said.

The BCS has taken a publicity hit again this year - pairing Iowa against Southern Cal in the Orange Bowl, while the Rose Bowl lost its traditional Big Ten vs. Pac-10 matchup.

"The bowl system has never been perfect," said BCS coordinator Mike Tranghese, the commissioner of the Big East. "We're sitting here and we're talking about all these negatives, but I'll remind everybody, eight years ago you could not have brought together Ohio State and Miami. Ohio State would have been in the Rose Bowl and Miami would have been in the Orange Bowl.

"And everybody would have been clamoring for it and they would have said, 'Look at the stupidity of this system.' Now we bring them together and everybody wants to focus on everything else except the fact that the two teams 1 and 2 and undefeated are getting a chance to play each other. So I think we're not perfect, but I think we're doing what we started out to do."

Other options

The BCS does something else universities like: guarantee piles of cash for its members.

The one-game playoff, however, could bring an even bigger pile of cash when the networks begin the bidding for the new BCS contract for 2006.

"I think it's a possibility," Capital One Bowl executive director Tom Mickle said. "But I'm not sure if that's going to accomplish what you want. I think it would still be pretty tough to pick a 1-2 game.

"The next logical step may be to set the seeding for the New Year's Day bowls, say the top four seeds. I don't think the presidents are going to be favorable of an eight-team playoff, so (four teams) is probably what you are going to see, with one game after the bowls are over."

That's also a format that's going get a strong look. By seeding teams and pairing them off, it also would keep the BCS bowls lucrative. And it would keep alive the chance for a one-game national title.

Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley is outspoken about the need for a playoff. He doesn't like the idea of playing the bowls, then selecting two teams to meet in a national title game.

"I would think a better scenario there is you use the same system we have now, take the four winners (from the BCS bowls) and let them play," he said.

The two winners from that playoff would then meet for the national championship.

"It's three more ballgames," Foley said. "Let's take as an example a couple of years ago. The only undefeated team is Oklahoma and they played FSU (in the Orange Bowl). So they play it off and now they revote, and Oklahoma has to play someone else? That doesn't make any sense to me. But you sit here and you seed them one through eight and you put all those in the BCS bowls and then you let the four winners play. It may get people closer to what they want."

Bowled over

With the Insight.com Bowl dropping its suffix for 2002, the college bowl season will be without a game featuring .com in the title for the first time in five years. Like so many Internet millions, more than 50 bowl games have disappeared over the years. Among them ...

Bluebonnet Bowl

Splitting time between Rice Stadium and the Astrodome in Houston from 1959-1987, this sissy-sounding game finally ended when organizers failed to come up with a corporate sponsor. Wonder why?

California Bowl

This game featured a MAC (Mid-American Conference) against WAC (Western Athletic Conference) showdown from 1981-91. The most bizarre outcome came in 1984 when UNLV, led by Ickey Woods and Randall Cunningham, beat Toledo 30-13 but later forfeited for using ineligible players. The outcome came one year before rap impresario Marion "Suge" Knight joined the UNLV program as a defensive lineman.

Gotham Bowl

"Holy doomed football game, Batman!" This New York City bowl, which lasted only from 1961-62, lost $100,000 in its first go-round, and a newspaper strike plagued the second one - a U. of Miami-Nebraska matchup. Attendance for the two games combined was less than 15,000. There's a reason they play these games in places with nice weather.

Pineapple Bowl

Played from 1940-52, this was the first of many bowls designed to get the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors a taste of the postseason.

Poulan

Weedeater Bowl

The competition, the pageantry of, uh, weedeaters? If the Rose Bowl is the "granddaddy of them all," this bowl, now called the Independence Bowl, was the drunk uncle.

Glass Bowl

Can't get into a bowl? Make one up. That's what Toledo did from 1946-49, winning the first three installments while playing the likes of Bates (Maine), New Hampshire and Oklahoma City. After losing to Cincinnati 33-13 in 1949, the Rockets took their ball and went home.

Ice Bowl

Played in Fairbanks, Alaska, from 1949-52, somehow this bowl never caught on.