Pac-12, Big 10 Support A Plus-One Format That Would Preserve The Rose Bowl, According To Report

The higher ups behind the BCS have made it clear that they do not want a playoff in anyway, but they may be inching toward some progress to expanding the college football post season with a plus-one. 

Back in 2008, ACC commissioner John Swofford and SEC commissioner Mike Slive presented a similar plus-one model only to be shot down days later by the other BCS leagues and specifically by the Pac-10 and Big 10.

The Seattle Times is reporting that the Big 10 and Pac-12 athletic directors are on board with a plus-one model that would preserve the Rose Bowl:

Athletic directors of the newly expanded Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences found consensus on a "plus-one" football national-championship proposal at meetings early this week that could signal movement toward a revamped Bowl Championship Series.

The athletic directors, meeting in Newport Beach, Calif., discussed several possible postseason football formats, including the status quo. It's part of a process to give conference commissioners input from their leagues for possible changes to the BCS after its TV contract runs out in January 2014.

The proposed format the ADs favored in a straw vote calls for adding a BCS bowl, probably the Cotton, and seeding the top four teams, which would play semifinals in two BCS bowls on a rotating basis. Presumably, the current BCS formula still would be used to rank teams. Winners would advance to a title game in what has become known as a "plus-one" format.

That is music to a lot of college football fans who are wanting a playoff, and even though a plus-one is still restrictive it is a good start. The earliest this could be brought to reality would be for the 2014 regular season since the current BCS deal runs through the 2014 bowl season.

However, the report is brought with speculation by Big 10 commissioner Jim Delany who says this report is "erroneous:" 

This is interesting, because odds are this report from the Seattle Times did not come out of nowhere.