If Football Bowl Subdivision conference commissioners and the sport’s other power brokers approve a four-team playoff to determine college football’s national champion, the semifinals and the national championship game will be played at neutral sites and the BCS bowl games will be played closer to New Year’s Day, a source familiar with the negotiations told ESPN.com on Tuesday.
The source said he believed the commissioners “are too far out on a limb to turn back now,” but said there were still many details yet to be finalized. A final decision on the BCS isn’t expected this week, but the commissioners and other officials are expected to begin hammering out many of the details of a four-team playoff.The proposed changes wouldn’t go into effect until the 2014 season. The current BCS system, in which the top two teams in the final BCS standings play in a national championship game at the site of one of the current BCS bowls (Fiesta, Orange, Rose and Sugar), will remain in place over the next two seasons.