Is college football any closer to a playoff than it was three days ago?
Maybe."Two to three years ago, playoff to me was a dirty word. Today I'm not so sure," says Col. John J. Clune, director of athletics at the U.S. Air Force Academy and chairman of the College Football Association's board of directors.
"It may never happen," says CFA Executive Director Chuck Neinas, "but the point is, one thing the CFA has done aside from the development of the championship structure is to create a greater awareness within our membership as to the importance of looking into the future of postseason competition as a whole."
The CFA concluded its 13th annual meeting Sunday without voting on a proposed 16-team playoff. It did, however, decide to form a committee to study the bowl system.
"I see it as a logical progression to the discussion of a playoff," said Dave Ogrean, the CFA's assistant executive director for television.
The bowls have been a major opponent of a playoff, fearing it would have an adverse effect on their games. Predictably, they weren't thrilled by the CFA's latest action, either.
"If they want to talk about there being too many New Year's Day bowls, they will get our attention," said Jim Brock, executive vice president of the Cotton Bowl.
The closest the playoff issue came to a vote during the CFA's three-day meeting was when Nebraska Athletic Director Bob Devaney, a playoff opponent, said, "The best message we could send to them would be to take a vote on whether we want a playoff."
No one called for a vote.
"This is a meeting for us to get together and talk about the big issue and we don't even know hoe we feel about it," said Texas-El Paso Athletic Director Brad Hovious, who favors a playoff. "We gave the TV committee a charge to come back with a plan. They did what they were charged to do. My question is, `Now what?' "
Neinas said the playoff proposal "rests with the same committee that presented it. Since we've been here, we've received several different ideas. I don't think that we can ignore the fact that there's opposition to a playoff per se, but I have yet to hear one person criticize the general plan."
In an attempt not to completely alienate the bowls, the CFA also issued a ringing salute to the bowls for the benefits they have brought to college football over the years.
Neinas said the bowl study was "not meant to be a knock on the bowls. The bowls themselves have a committee which is looking at some of the ways they might improve the bowl system."