Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Some late news tonight that shouldn't come as much of a surprise, the BCS has rejected the MWC's playoff proposal. Here is an early version of the story:

Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson made his case for his playoff plan to other schools, conferences and even government officials, but in the end his hard efforts weren't enough to sway the powerful presidents in the Bowl Championship Series to change their format.
On Wednesday, the BCS presidents rejected the MWC's proposal for an eight-team playoff plan that would have allowed greater access to the national championship game for teams hailing from the non-BCS conferences.
The BCS presidential oversight committee rejected the concept during a teleconference.
"There was no overall support for the proposal, although some conferences were interested in considering certain elements of it in the future - particularly those related to revenue, access and governance of the BCS arrangement," said University of Oregon president David Frohnmayer, the outgoing committee chairman.
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, who voted his team No. 1 after the Utes finished the 2008 season 13-0 including a 31-17 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, was on vacation and unavailable for comment.
The Utes finished No. 2 in the Associated Press poll and No. 4 in the final USA Today/Coaches poll.
Thompson's plan called for some radical changes, including using a 12-person committee to decide the eight teams that would make the playoffs instead of polls and computers.
While the committee had said it would consider parts of the MWC plan, the rejection was almost expected since the BCS and ESPN agreed to a 4-year, $500 million deal in November that would keep the present system intact.
The agreement didn't deter Thompson from pushing for reform, saying there were "fundamental flaws in the system."