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HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) -With the placid Atlantic Ocean shimmering in the background, Bowl Championship Series honchos gathered for a poolside cocktail party this week.
They had come to South Florida to discuss the merits of the plus-one model, which could radically alter major college football's bowl system. They might as well have been debating whether to order shrimp or stone crabs.
Nothing produces change in the BCS like conflict. And there wasn't much at the oceanfront resort where the BCS overseers are meeting this week.
That's why the 11 commissioners who run the BCS, along with Notre Dame's athletic director, are hesitant to make the seemingly simple move to a plus-one model. They don't have to.
Fans and commentators have labeled the BCS unfair and anti-American. But no one - not even the passionate followers of the Georgia Bulldogs, the latest in a long line of parties aggrieved by the BCS - stormed the beach this week, demanding that the BCS be blown to the heavens.
There simply hasn't been the sort of pressure required to bring significant changes in the BCS, the latest scheme to create a national champion in a sport ruled by intensely regional interests.
"To be honest with you, I think the calls for change are more external than they are internal," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said on Tuesday.
Change can be good, even when it's forced on the BCS.
When the BCS has tweaked (read: improved) its incomprehensible formula for ranking teams, it has often been in response to prior injustices.
The BCS added a fifth bowl after Tulane president Scott Cowen pressed for access for nonaligned conferences. Faced with Congressional action, the overlords reluctantly opened the gates to the Mountain West, Conference USA and their ilk, beginning in the 2006 season.
The BCS chiefs and their bowl partners gritted their teeth all the way. Then along came Boise State, which stunned Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Suddenly, having the little guys around didn't seem like such a terrible idea.
"We didn't embrace it," Delany said. "It was put on us by Cowen and Congress, but sometimes you don't always do what you should do, but we did that."
So now the question is, should they move to the plus-one model that will be presented by Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive on Wednesday?
