Bowl us over, BCS, and just vote on ‘plus-one’ football playoff

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – Bowl Championship Series officials, meeting at a posh hotel for three days, don’t need to leave Florida with a tan.

They need to leave with a plan.

And that’s not only because many news organizations – the New York Times, USA Today, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Associated Press, ESPN and the Los Angeles Times – have gathered here to monitor proceedings that may not justify the expense accounts.

Need us to set the agenda?

How’s this: The future of college football needs to be decided somewhere.

Decide it here.

The next round of television negotiations is set to begin sometime after September, so BCS power brokers have to determine soon what they’re selling.

Fox has two years left on its four-year, $320-million deal, with an exclusive window to renegotiate. Fox wants back in and definitely doesn’t want the BCS to take its game to the open market.

There are two options here:

Option A is staying with the status quo, and allowing Fox or another network to take another four-year run with the BCS, starting with the 2010 season. That would take the deal through 2013 and sync it up with ABC’s separate deal with the Rose Bowl.

That also would give college presidents and administrators time to assess the viability of a playoff and set the stage for a mega-deal in 2014.

Option B is endorsing the modified “plus-one” model for the next four-year bowl cycle. It would take the top four teams in the final BCS standings and pair them off in two semifinal matches. It would require adding a fifth BCS bowl to the mix, with the Cotton Bowl and others itching to get in.

As much as the public clamors for an NFL-style playoff, there isn’t going to be one. Opponents say it would diminish college football’s regular season.

Even plus-one is flawed, and it would only amount to a cookie thrown to satiate an angry beast.

As Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany pointed out today before dashing off to a marathon meeting, plus-one would have solved nothing last year.

It would have pitted No. 1 Ohio State versus No. 4 Oklahoma in one semifinal and No. 2 Louisiana State versus No. 3 Virginia Tech in a rematch of an earlier season game.

Plus-one would have left out two schools many thought were the best at season’s end: No. 5 Georgia and No. 7 USC.

The Big Ten and Pacific 10 conferences are adamantly opposed to plus-one. Delany says it would only lead to more controversy.

Fine, but quit talking about it.

Put plus-one on the table and vote on it.

Make the Big Ten and Pac-10 reject it, which they will.

Tell the public why the BCS is fine the way it is.

Then, stand back for the inevitable backlash.

On that front, though, what’s new?

chris.dufresne@latimes.com