Conference Champions - Playoff Inevitability Will Change Look Of College Football

Hours later, the Southern California and Alabama. Later that evening, in the other semifinal, Ohio State faced LSU in the Sugar Bowl.

As expected, picking the Football Final Four was full of controversy. The 10-member committee comprised of conference commissioners and athletic directors debated over two days on the selections and seedings.

MORE: BCS leaders focused on four-team formats

Texas coach Major Applewhite , whose team just missed out on a bid, complained about the subjective selection process. Kansas State coach Bobby Petrino argued that football was better off under the old system.

All the bellyaching was soon forgotten after Cowboys Stadium a week later. It was clear the committee had gotten it right. In a game decided in the final minutes, USC quarterback Max Browne led the Trojans to a 21-20 victory over the Tigers.

After 16 years of acrimony under the Bowl Championship Series , there was plenty to celebrate.

Two seasons from now, this is hopefully what we have to look forward to. On Thursday, college football officials took their first significant toward a four-team playoff when the last round of BCS meetings ended in Hollywood, Fla.

BCS executive director Bill Hancock called it "seismic change for college football." Still much work remains to be done. Conference commissioners will now present the various models of a four-team playoff to their members during their annual meetings in May and June. The proposal will go before an oversight panel of university presidents the last week of June and a final decision is expected by July 4. But the new system won't go into effect until the 2014 season.

This much we do know: there will no longer be automatic qualifier designations for conference champions , making the Big East's land grab (San Diego State, SMU , Houston, Boise State) look even more ridiculous. "It won't continue" in the next contract, Hancock said.

Also, the playoff won't creep into mid-January as the BCS title game has done in recent seasons. "One of the goals is to make the postseason a celebration of college football," SEC commissioner Mike Slive said. "And to focus in on a reasonable time frame that is consistent with a reasonable bowl season. And then be able to have a championship game and semifinals at a time and a place that would allow us to really celebrate college football at a time when people are thinking about college football, which is in and around the end of December and early January."

What still needs to be worked out is how the teams are chosen, where the games will be played and how the revenue will be divided. A selection committee makes the most sense just as it's done in basketball and in the lower levels of college football.

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott wants only conference champions to be eligible for selection as a way to move away from the subjectivity of the polls. Slive, whose teams have won the past six national titles, prefers more of a free market system, with the top four teams in the playoff, champions or not. Expect Slive to win this debate.

Slive also doesn't support playing semifinals on campus. The Big Ten and the Pac-12 would welcome home games on campus.

"I'm a big proponent of it," Scott said. "That was the choice we made in our conference with our championship game. Collegiate atmosphere. Guaranteed sellout. We've said all along preserving the regular season is important. What better way to emphasize the importance of the regular season then having a chance to earn a home game? It's a proven NFL model."

Expect Slive to win again. Though a semifinal game in snowy Madison, Wisc. sounds like fun, for many schools the logistics aren't feasible. "Can Manhattan, Kan., take care of 1,200 media?" Hancock asked. "Where will people stay?"

All these details will be decided in the next two months. For now, there's reason to celebrate. A playoff is on its way.