HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- At least the weather and the infinity pool are hot here at the Westin Diplomat. The BCS meetings? Not so much.
I'm on the ground here in South Florida waiting for actual news to break. It might, and that's why about 10 of us are here covering the "event" but don't bet on it. We've been warned for months about the lack of activity expected from these meetings but still we came. If nothing else, it's good to get face time with the power brokers of the sport.
There's Jim Delany, Big Ten commissioner, and perceived Hoover Dam of the group holding back a plus-one playoff.
There's Tom Hansen, Pac-10 commissioner who threatened to pull his conference out of the BCS last summer if a plus-one postseason was added.
There's Mike Slive, SEC commissioner, who wants a plus-one and is trying to figure out a way to delicately raise the subject here. If he does, Delany is likely to call an immediate potty break.
There's John Swofford, ACC commissioner and BCS coordinator who supports a plus-one as well. Two Southern commissioners in the plus-one boat. Start bailing water, boys. You're sinking.
There's Dan Beebe, the modest Big 12 commissioner who probably knows more than anyone in the room. Beebe is a laywer -- non-practicing at the moment -- a former athlete, former NCAA investigator and former Ohio Valley commissioner. If there is an issue to be discussed here, he ought to be leading the discussion.
There's Mike Tranghese, the Big East commissioner and maybe the most industrious alive considering he brought his football conference back from the brink of disaster and has developed a basketball league that is tougher than it was in the 1980s.
What won't happen: Any serious plus-one talk. The prospect of a four-team playoff (which essentially a plus-one is) faces so many hurdles right now that it is almost a non-starter.
What will happen: Momentum toward a new television contract involving the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls. Fox has an exclusive negotiating window with those three bowls in September to extend its deal beyond the 2010 bowls. A new four-year deal would sync up the contracts with that of the Rose Bowl which has a separate deal with ABC that goes through the 2014 bowl season.
What it all means: If you want to meet us back here for the 2011 BCS meetings, feel free. That year should be a landmark in the sport's history. That's when the commissioners will have to decide how the sport will look starting with the 2014 season. All the TV contracts will be ending after the 2013 season (January 2014 bowls). The networks will have their input (some kind of playoff). Both Hansen and Delany could be retired by then.
That's not to say there won't be significant opposition to a playoff. The presidents still control any further expansion of the postseason. But with more free-thinking commissioners in place, those presidents might be persuaded to change the BC
