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BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 7, 2008

John Swofford

AMY YAKOLA: Welcome to tonight's Bowl Championship Series media teleconference with John Swofford, Commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference and coordinator of the Bowl Championship Series arrangement. The purpose of tonight's call is to review and answer any questions about the pairing and selection process for the BCS Bowls. Shortly after this call, each BCS Bowl will have a teleconference, as well.
We will begin tonight's media teleconference with opening remarks from Commissioner John Swofford.
COMMISSIONER SWOFFORD: Thanks to each of you for joining us tonight. I want to take just a couple of moments to go over the selection process and then I'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have.
There were eight automatic qualifying teams this year: Virginia Tech from the ACC, Cincinnati from the Big East, Penn State from the Big-10, Oklahoma from the Big 12, Southern California from the PAC-10, Florida from the SEC, No. 3 Texas from the Big 12 - because of the 3-4 rule - and No. 6 Utah from the Mountain West by virtue of being the highest ranked team within the top 12 from a non-automatic qualifying conference.
In addition to the eight automatic qualifiers, there were four at-large teams that were eligible for consideration by the Bowls: Alabama, Boise State, Ohio State, and TCU.
As a result of today's final BCS standings, the national championship game will feature No. 1 Oklahoma versus No. 2 Florida on January 8th, 2009, in the FedEx BCS National Championship game. The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl selected Texas as an automatic qualifier to replace Oklahoma, who will play for the national championship. Texas will face Ohio State, an at-large selection.
The Allstate Sugar Bowl selected Alabama as an at-large to replace Florida, who will play for the national championship. Alabama will play Utah, selected as an automatic qualifier by virtue of being the highest ranked team within the top 12 from a non-automatic qualifying conference.
The FedEx Orange Bowl will match two conference champions, ACC champion Virginia Tech, and Big East champion Cincinnati, both automatic qualifiers.
In the Rose Bowl, PAC-10 champion Southern California will play Big-10 champion Penn State, also both automatic qualifiers.
Those were today's selections and the matchups we look forward to as a part of this year's Bowl season. We feel like there are some very intriguing matchups that college football fans will enjoy immensely.
This year has been quite a year for college football. I don't think there's any question about that when you see a top 10 that includes seven one-loss teams, two undefeated teams, and one team that had two losses. So hopefully, and we believe quite probably, the BCS games will be the culmination, and a terrific culmination, to what has been a very, very intriguing regular season.
AMY YAKOLA: At this time we will open up the call for questions.

Q. John, is there any thought to either replacing the current coaches poll with, say, a poll of retired coaches? Any chance that we'd ever see the weekly coaches poll in whatever form be made public each week to make it more transparent?
COMMISSIONER SWOFFORD: We have not considered a poll of former coaches replacing the current coaches poll. We just haven't had that discussion at this point in time.
A couple years ago we had a lengthy discussion among ourselves and with the American Football Coaches Association, and came to an agreement at that point in time that what would be appropriate would be that the final poll be made public on a per-voter basis, and that's what we're utilizing now. I think that's helped the transparency of everything over the past several years.

Q. Is there any chance, because of the controversies surrounding the tiebreaker in the Big 12, that maybe y'all would consider at least making the last two public, because of the significance of it?
COMMISSIONER SWOFFORD: You know, I really can't answer that. That's something that would be appropriately discussed, if it were to be discussed, at our annual meeting in the spring in April.

Q. John, a question about a team that wins early in the season versus late in the season or has a big loss early in the season versus late in the season. Is there any way to mathematically adjust for that or is that just something we can't do?
COMMISSIONER SWOFFORD: I don't think we can do that. I think that's really in the minds of the voters themselves. How that occurs, how that affects the ultimate outcome in terms of the computers, as well as the human voters, it's a look at the full body of work through the entire season.

Q. You guys stood up last spring and said pretty definitively there would not be a playoff until at least after the 2013 season. Has that changed in any way with the new ESPN contract or is that still basically what we're looking at?
COMMISSIONER SWOFFORD: I think that's still what we're looking at. That was a very full discussion in the spring that actually started in January at each conference level.
One of the things I might add that I think has become better and better understood is that the 11 commissioners and the Notre Dame athletic director, particularly in the case of the 11 commissioners, when we have those discussions we're representing entire conferences, not just individual opinions. And from January to April we had a pretty full discussion at the various conference levels with athletic directors, in some instances with coaches, and certainly with presidents, about the future.
At that point in time it was consideration of a plus-one model, if you recall. Those discussions, after having gone to the conference levels, to our presidents and athletic directors, ended up culminating, if you will, in April in South Florida during our meetings.
There was some support for not a playoff but at least a plus-one model, but there was not sufficient support for that to move forward. A decision was made by the group representing the conferences at that point in time that we would continue with the current format, not only for the next two years but for the next four-year cycle of the upcoming television contract.

Q. Is it safe to assume the new contract with ESPN was negotiated under that premise?
COMMISSIONER SWOFFORD: It was negotiated under that premise. It could be adjusted during the course of the contract. Whether it will be or not is another matter because the intention moving forward of the group was that we would move forward with the format we currently have.
I think the other thing to remember, too, is that the BCS is not a democracy. A 7-5 vote doesn't necessarily carry something forward that's really fundamental to what the BCS is. It's arriving at an end point that each participating conference is willing to participate in.

Q. One of the frustrations I've seen increasingly from readers is not necessarily with the way the championship game is decided but how then some of the other Bowl matchups don't necessarily match up the next best teams. I know that's never been the intention of the BCS. When you look at a team like Texas that just narrowly missed the top two, they'll play the No. 10 team, would the BCS ever consider loosening the conference partnerships or make more flexible selection rules to allow another game where you get to see No. 3 Texas play No. 4 Alabama or No. 5 USC?
COMMISSIONER SWOFFORD: That can happen. That does happen at times. But the BCS, as it's structured, respects the Bowls. It's a bit of a hybrid, if you will. I think it's important, the conferences think it's important, the Bowls think it's important, for there to be a selection pool, and the Bowls continue to have some flexibility and leeway in the teams that they select in terms of what would be best for their particular Bowl as well as for the teams participating.

Q. Is there any discomfort among the commissioners when you get a three-can't-fit-into-two situation like you have this year? Would a succession of those be anything that could provide an impetus to revisit at least the plus-one during the course of the contract?
COMMISSIONER SWOFFORD: Well, I can't answer that. That will simply have to be determined as we move forward. We've got an interesting situation, intriguing situation, this year in terms of the regular season and the Big 12 South and the terrific competition that that division of the conference had. Highly unusual. Those teams are to be commended because they're terrific football teams. When you have seven one-loss teams in the top 10 and two undefeated teams in the top 10, they're all terrific football teams. I don't think anybody would argue that.
One of the interesting aspects of where we are, looking at the standings, is that Florida and Oklahoma are one or two in the Harris poll, the coaches poll, and even the AP poll, which is not used in the BCS standings. So you have a consistency there with the human polls of those same two teams, and yet at the same time you look at the quality of Texas and a number of other teams there with only one loss that are obviously terrific football teams, and as I said, two undefeated teams.
It has been an extraordinary year in college football. I'm not sure, I'd have to go back and check records, I'm not sure when we've ever had that. We may have, but it's not often you're going to have teams bunched together to the degree that we had this year, and particularly in not only a single conference but a single division of one conference. That says a lot about the Big 12 and the quality of play in the Big 12 this year.

Q. Is that the primary argument for a plus-one?
COMMISSIONER SWOFFORD: Well, it was one of the arguments. You know, the plus-one, just in a very fundamental sense, part of the discussion about it, which again not enough conferences could support to move forward, was that it gives two more teams an opportunity to potentially play in the national championship game - four rather than two.
But that's not on the table at this point. It was discussed and was not moved forward. Our anticipation is that we will continue through the next four-year television cycle with our current setup.

Q. It seems to me like there was tons of drama heading into this weekend, then after what happened last night there was no drama in terms of the matchups that were going to follow. Is that the way you see it? Do you feel comfortable addressing that?
COMMISSIONER SWOFFORD: Well, I don't know about evaluating the drama part of it. That's subjective. Obviously the aim of the BCS arrangement is to match No. 1 and No. 2 as a part of the Bowl system and to create other Bowl game matchups between competitive teams that are going to be appealing to the college football fan, and appropriate of what happened during the regular season. I think that has been accomplished this year.

Q. Given the BCS standings aren't really complete until today, we've always been told don't look at the standings until the final day, are you comfortable with the standings being used in conference tiebreaker situations?
COMMISSIONER SWOFFORD: Well, first of all, it's up to each individual conference to determine its champion in whatever way it chooses to do so, and that includes breaking ties.
Wearing my commissioner's hat, yes, I believe that it is appropriate. In the ACC, we do use the standings as a tiebreaker, as several other points are reviewed. I know we'd rather not get that far down the line, if possible, but it certainly can happen.
Wearing my BCS coordinator's hat, I think the use of the standings is appropriate. The BCS group, as such, does not become involved in how the conferences select their representatives and select their champion. That's a matter for the conferences to decide.

Q. We seem to get more comments from high-profile coaches like Mack Brown, Bob Stoops, Pete Carroll, last year Mark Richt. Do you sense a little bit a growing dissatisfaction with the system by a lot of these main players that usually figure in the BCS?
COMMISSIONER SWOFFORD: You know, not necessarily. I think there's some of that, and has been some of that during the entire first decade of the BCS. I don't think it's necessarily inappropriate. People have their opinions and concerns. A lot of times that helps to improve the end result in the system itself. I think people should be free to express their opinions and concerns.
As I said over the years, as you know, this approach has been tweaked and changed and adjusted, and hopefully it's improved over that 10-year period. I've often said that I feel like college football post-season continues to evolve.
If you go back to the coalition and the alliance that started back in the early '90s that preceded the BCS, I think you can see that evolution of trying to match the two best teams in a true national championship game, how that has changed, how that has become the BCS. I think we've seen the BCS brand become something very prominent over the last decade in college football. And I think we'll probably continue to see some change and evolvement as we move forward.
I think it's good to note, too, like this year's game - Oklahoma and Florida - if you go back to the old Bowl system, when it was frankly very unusual for No. 1 to play No. 2, this is a game that would never have happened.

Q. Have you and any of the other conference commissioners set up a meeting with president-elect Barack Obama to sort this out yet?
COMMISSIONER SWOFFORD: No, not at this time. Nothing scheduled at the moment (laughter).
AMY YAKOLA: Thanks, everybody, for joining us today. This concludes tonight's teleconference. Hope you have a great night.

End of FastScripts

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