During a joint press conference on June 26 in Washington, D.C. that was televised on ESPN, BCS conference commissioners and university presidents announced that a four-team seeded playoff for college football had been approved. The playoff will begin starting with the 2014-2015 college football season.
The playoff will consist of two national semifinals with the No. 1 team playing the No. 4 team in one game and the No. 2 team playing the No. 3 team in the other game. The winners of the semifinals will meet in another game for the national championship. A selection committee will pick the four teams for the playoff. Final details of how the selection committee itself will be picked were not disclosed during the press conference.
As the playoff will run for 12 years, no expansion to eight or even sixteen teams will be possible until after that date. SEC commissioner Mike Slive said that an eight or sixteen team playoff would not work based on the academic calendar.
The new playoff that will replace the BCS has not yet been named. The bowls that will serve as host sites have not yet been determined either.