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HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) -Wednesday is judgment day for the Bowl Championship Series' plus-one format.
As three days of BCS meetings wrap up, Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive will present his plan to the other 10 conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White. The proposal would seed the top four teams in two semifinal bowl games, with the winners meeting in a national championship game.
The commissioners can't adopt the change, which would require presidential approval. But they can kill it.
"If this kind of change doesn't have enough support from the commissioners group to move forward at this given point in time, then it simply stops there," BCS coordinator John Swofford told reporters at a briefing to wrap up Tuesday's meetings.
The Big Ten and Pac-10 have been widely portrayed as the two leading opponents to the plan. Without them, the BCS would be on its way to a playoff.
That's the perception - though not the reality - and it's allowed the other conferences to be safely noncommittal about the plus-one concept.
That rankles Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany.
"I think the characterization of the Big Ten and Pac-10 being at one place and everyone else being at the other place, I don't think it's accurate," Delany told reporters Tuesday during a break in the BCS meetings at a beachfront hotel.
"Just because somebody says they're open-minded and interested in looking at other models doesn't mean they're committed to it."
The Big Ten and Pac-10 are loyal to the Rose Bowl, and they worry that any move to a plus-one would open the door to a full-blown playoff. The Rose Bowl and its separate TV contract with ABC is a major hurdle for the BCS to clear if it wants to adopt the new format.
One magazine even dubbed the Rose Bowl alliance 'The Axis of Obstruction."
"I think it's a stretch myself," Delany said with a laugh.
He's got a point.
