Earlier this week there was optimism in the college football world as the BCS conference commissioners gathered together for their annual meeting. The centerpiece for discussion being the "Plus-One" format to push college football ever closer to a playoff system. But then it appeared to everyone that big bad Jim Delany wasn't going to let it happen.
The plus-one may not seem complicated. But the plan requires unanimous approval, and the Big Ten and Pac-10 have already made clear they oppose it. The other conferences have been noncommittal.
Booo! Booo Jim Delany! Boo the Big Ten, Pac-10, and Rose Bowl Axis of Evil! Booo! Everyone on the planet can see the benefit of a college football playoff! Just ask the Big IX!
"There's a strong feeling in the Big 12 that what we have is working well," Beebe said. "There's great satisfaction with the regular season and the postseason."
Huh. Well what does the Big East think?
"The seeded model looked like a playoff, and we don't think a playoff is in the best interest of college football," he was quoted as saying by The Associated Press.
Oh. Well surely the smaller conferences must be frustrated by this. The little guy is getting screwed here.
WAC commissioner Karl Benson -- who spoke for the C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt and WAC schools that probably will never have a chance to crash the BCS title game -- said they were still "very pleased with the current system."
Hmmm. Ok. Well there's Notre Dame. They have God on their side. When the Irish speak, the college football world moves to their bidding, right?
Even Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White, who oversees a Fighting Irish program that probably shouldn't be too worried about the BCS system for a while, nonetheless left a conference room at an oceanfront resort smiling and proclaiming, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Well how about that.
For a BCS meeting that was supposed to be uneventful, this bombshell was front and center after the 11 conference commissioners and White met behind closed doors for the third straight day: The Big Ten and Pac-10 aren't alone in their opposition to a playoff.
And any chance of a college football playoff is dead, at least for a long, long time.
I'm not a big fan of Jim Delany's, but it's evident he's not the lone voice of obstruction against the college football playoff. There are too many people making too much money off of the BCS cash cow. And like Notre Dame AD Kevin White says, if it ain't broke they ain't going to fix it.