College Football Is Willing To Discuss Talking About Having A Playoff, Maybe

The commissioners of the 11 FBS conferences, plus Notre Dame's athletic director, gathered together today in New Orleans to talk about where to go next with the game's postseason structure. According to the New York Times, there was much more "openness" to the idea of a four-team playoff than there might have been in the past:

"The environment has changed in the sense that we had five people who didn't want to talk about it, of the seven founders," Delany said. "And I think the seven founders were the conferences plus Notre Dame, and four years ago five of us didn't want to have the conversation. Now people want to have the conversation. I don't know where our institutions will be on any of this, but I think that in good faith we have to engage and be curious and be open and see where we go."

The Times report goes on to quote Delany as saying nothing was imminent, with Bill Hancock, the commissioner of the BCS, adding that there are "a lot of cans to kick down the road" in the five to seven meetings expected between now and July. Perhaps one agenda item for next time ought to be something that discourages the BCS leagues from using exclusionary words like "founders" to describe themselves. Now that would signal some real openness.

Talks Begin With an Open Mind on Football Playoff [New York Times]