BCS commissioners work out details for four-team playoff

The second-to-last season in the Bowl Championship Series is headed for another possible controversy with three undefeated teams vying for two national title spots.

The good news is that BCS commissioners meeting in Denver on Monday sorted several details for the four-team playoff that will replace the BCS in 2014.

The commissioners have agreed with the presidential oversight committee on a new system that will have six major bowls, not seven as recently suggested, with guaranteed access provided to the so-called “Group of 5” conferences.

A selection committee will determine the four playoff teams and also place other top teams into other access bowls. The Western Athletic Conference’s dropping football after this year will leave the sport with five major conferences: the Southeastern, Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Pac-12 and Big Ten. The “Group of 5” conferences will be the Big East, Mountain West, Sun Belt, Mid-American and Conference USA.

Rather than create a a seventh bowl to accommodate the “Group of 5,” the selection committee will provide an automatic bid for the highest-ranked team from those conferences.

“Today’s meeting is a unanimous ratification of what we announced last June in Washington, D.C., said Charles Steger, the chairman of the presidential oversight committee. “I’m delighted that additional details have been resolved and that everything is on track so fans can enjoy the postseason they’ve been asking for. College football, with its great regular season, is strong and popular – it’s about to get stronger and more popular

Brett McMurphy of ESPN.com also reported the oversight committee will grant commissioners the power to authorize ESPN’s proposed offer of $475 million per year for the 12-year cycle of the contract.

Yet to be determined is the name of the new system and how the national semifinal games will be rotated among the six bowls. Three of the six bowls will be the Rose, Sugar and Orange, with the leading candidate for the others being the Fiesta, Cotton and Chick-fil-A.

— Chris Dufresne

Etc.

Washington State Coach Mike Leach denied his players are subjected to any type of abuse, as alleged by star receiver Marquess Wilson.

Wilson made the allegations in a letter he released Saturday in which he quit the team and also complained that the coaching staff would “belittle, intimidate and humiliate us.”

Leach said during his regular Monday meeting with reporters: “There is no truth about it at all.” He described Wilson as a disgruntled player.

Asked if there had been any actions by coaches that could be construed as abuse, Leach replied: “No, no, no. Next question.”

Wilson issued a statement on Saturday saying he had quit the team as a protest of “physical, emotional and verbal abuse” by the coaching staff. He did not provide examples and has not been available for comment.

Michigan State offensive tackle Fou Fonoti says he plans to take a medical redshirt and return next season.

Fonoti went down because of a season-ending foot injury two days before the Spartans’ Sept. 15 home game against Notre Dame.

The 6-foot-4, 296-pound Fonoti is a second-year player from Cerritos College in California. He also played at Lakewood Mayfair High.

A Houston defensive back has left the hospital, six days after taking a hit in practice tore a major vein that feeds the heart.

A statement from the university says cornerback D.J. Hayden was discharged from Memorial Hermann-Texas Trauma Institute in Houston on Monday afternoon.