ESPN College Football

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany recaps the league's spring meetings with Adam Rittenberg.

CHICAGO -- Despite a few speed bumps, the Big Ten/Pac-12 scheduling partnership is "a go," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany told his league's athletic directors this week.

The details are still being worked out, which isn't a surprise when you have 24 major-conference programs with unique interests, scheduling philosophies and scheduling agreements. But Delany hopes to have a more specific idea of the scheduling models in the next few months.

"We do want it all fit in," Delany said Wednesday. "Whether that means you have 12 games or 11 games or 10 games in the first cycle ... we're going to want 12 games ASAP. A lot of scheduling has been done in other nonconference areas that's reliant on this."

The original goal was to have a full round-robin schedule by 2017, but it could be wishful thinking. Ohio State, for example, has games scheduled with both Oklahoma and North Carolina, and athletic director Gene Smith told ESPN.com last month that he wouldn't add a Pac-12 opponent to the slate in 2017. Pac-12 teams have their own issues, namely a nine-game conference schedule -- as opposed to eight in the Big Ten -- and long-term agreements with teams like Notre Dame (USC, Stanford).

The partnership eventually will feature six home-and-home series, but it might not be complete until after 2017.

The scheduling process will be a "hybrid" effort between the schools and the two league offices. Big Ten and Pac-12 teams are facing one another with more frequency in the coming years -- three matchups take place this fall -- and some series are already set for 2017 and beyond. Northwestern and Stanford, for example, have a four-game series set for 2019-22.

Big Ten senior associate commissioner for television administration Mark Rudner and Pac-12 deputy commissioner Kevin Weiberg, are overseeing the scheduling elements.

"We may have to do less," Delany said, referring to the league. "In other words, if there are three or four games [set] in '17, '18, '19 and '20, maybe the conference will only have to come in and pick seven or eight other games."

Before announcing the Pac-12 partnership, the Big Ten had approved a nine-game conference schedule, supporting Delany's frequent statement that league teams should play one another more, not less. But the Big Ten decided to stay at eight league games because of the Pac-12 agreement.

"On balance, it's a close call," Delany said. "But in the nine-game conference schedule, who you don't play was one factor, but the other fact was five home games, four away. If you can create a situation where you improve your schedules, you improve the fan experience, you improve the games that are going on television without affecting the home/away segment inside of the conference, [it] was the preferred method. If we hadn't done the collaboration, we'd do nine [league games]. If we do the collaboration, we'll do eight.

"We're able to attract a higher-quality of game."

One potential concern is how the scheduling partnership will impact teams' other nonconference agreements. Purdue athletic director Morgan Burke has made it clear he wants to keep the annual Notre Dame series going as long as possible, and added that the Boilers have played Notre Dame and a Pac-12 team (Oregon, Arizona) in the same season before.

"It adds some name recognition to your schedules in September," Burke said. "Working together, we can try to get the programs in comparable stages of development, to compete against one another so we don't have an imbalance. It's not easy to do that, but that's something to work toward."

CHICAGO -- The Big Ten favors having a college football playoff within the existing bowls, which essentially pushes those games to warmer climates in the south and west.

As Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said, "Let's say it is 5 degrees. Is that right for the game?"

Apparently it's OK for lower-tier bowls. League commissioner Jim Delany said Wednesday that the Big Ten will have discussions with the Pinstripe Bowl, played outside in late December at New York's Yankee Stadium, about a potential future tie-in.

The Big Ten's current bowl lineup expires after the 2013 season. The lineup is heavy on Florida and Texas games and features only one contest (Little Caesars Pizza Bowl) in the Big Ten footprint, which is played indoors at Detroit's Ford Field.

The Pinstripe Bowl, which launched in 2010 and pits the Big 12 against the Big East, would put Big Ten teams in a familiar climate in late December.

"New York City is the financial sports capital of the world," Delany said Wednesday. "It's a global city like Chicago. We'll have conversations with them."

Delany on Tuesday hinted the Big Ten will diversify its bowl lineup after 2013, which could mean less games in Florida or Texas. While many Big Ten fans would love to see the Detroit game go, I think it's more beneficial to get out of the Gator Bowl and maybe the TicketCity Bowl. Those bowls don't seem to add much for the Big Ten.

Most Big Ten schools have huge alumni/fan bases in New York, and the Pinstripe Bowl would feel less like a road game than some of the annual contests the Big Ten plays.

"We've been in 11 bowl games in the last 15 years," Purdue athletic director Morgan Burke told ESPN.com, "and every time, I feel it's a road game, except when I go to Detroit."

Adding the Pinstripe Bowl and another game in California against the Pac-12 -- Holiday or Kraft Fight Hunger -- makes a lot of sense. The Rose Bowl can't be the only potential Big Ten/Pac-12 postseason matchup, especially with the impending playoff and the possibility of the traditional Rose pairing not taking place each year.

What are your thoughts?

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Michigan lost some invaluable leadership on the offensive line when center David Molk graduated. A somewhat unlikely figure is volunteering to fill that void.

"I definitely see myself as a leader," junior left tackle Taylor Lewan told ESPN.com. "I want to be one of the main guys that really helps through all the successes and all the bad things. I want that to be put on myself.

"I'm the left tackle, the blind side. They made a movie about it. So it's my job to be a leader."

Lewan has been a lot of things during his career so far with the Wolverines. A standout lineman who's a key cog in the entire offense? Yes. A goofball who keeps his teammates laughing? Sure. A thorn under the skin of opposing players and occasionally officials? Yep.

But leadership is something new for Lewan, who's trying to shed some of his old labels for new and improved ones. Those who know him best noticed a major difference this spring.

"Taylor has just gotten more serious," said defensive lineman Craig Roh, who graduated from the same Scottsdale, Ariz., high school as Lewan. "For example, he's doing a diet now, and every Sunday he goes grocery shopping so he can make his own food. That may not seem like much, but for a college guy that's a lot. I just see him concentrating on things that matter more."

There's much at stake this year for Lewan. He'll be blocking for a potentially highly potent offense led by Denard Robinson and Fitz Toussaint as Michigan likely begins the season in the top 10. And a great year could have Lewan positioned to enter the 2012 NFL draft.

In his first 2013 Big Board , ESPN.com's Mel Kiper Jr. pegged Lewan as the No. 2 tackle and No. 12 prospect overall for next year's draft. Kiper said the 6-foot-8, 302-pounder "will get the Jake Long comparisons all year in Ann Arbor" and has "elite length and athleticism for the position."

Michigan offensive coordinator Al Borges agrees with that assessment.

"If Taylor works hard, stays concentrated and maintains focus, he can be very, very good," Borges said. "That's really his story. If he's focused, there isn't anything we ask him to do that he can't do."

Staying focused and disciplined has been a challenge at times. In his first two years of starting, Lewan has too often been a magnet for yellow flags. He cut down his penalties in the second half of last year but still drew three personal fouls, most famously getting tangled up with Michigan State's William Gholston several times before Gholston finally tried to punch Lewan, earning the Spartans' defensive end a one-game suspension.

He has also served as the team's resident comedian, cracking jokes and using his outgoing personality to keep things light. But Lewan says he has learned now when to have fun and when to get down to business.

"I think it's really a maturity thing," he said. "I'm 20 years old now, but I came into college when I was 17. I don't want to put it all on that or anything, but it's really just maturing.

"When I'm here in the building, football is No. 1. It's kind of one of those switches you have to turn on. I turn off all the joking."

Much of Michigan's fortunes may depend on the health of Robinson and Toussaint. Safeguarding them is a job Lewan takes very seriously.

"I'd rather be the guy who gets injured and plays with a broken wrist or something rather than them, because they're the ones running the ball," he said. "I can play with pain, but I don't want them to have to. Every part of my game needs to improve so that doesn't happen."

Lewan hasn't become a total killjoy. This spring, he bought a tandem bike that he could ride to practice, and teammates clamored to join him on it. The sight of the 300-pounder and another hulking football player on a bicycle built for two caused a lot of double-takes around campus.

"He's still Taylor," Roh said. "He's just not as much of a clown."

A focused Lewan could stake a claim as the best lineman in the Big Ten in 2012. And that's no joke.

The league meetings in Chicago and playoffs (cue Jim Mora clip) dominate your hump day links:

• The Big Ten's love of the Rose Bowl is making it act irrationally and against the league's best interests, Dan Wetzel writes.
• There's no guarantee on how that Rose Bowl relationship will continue.
• The Big Ten won't be able to use geography as an excuse for bowl performance in the future, Drew Sharp says.
• The league is pushing for a seven-win minimum to make a bowl game even though that may hurt some of its own teams.
• A selection committee is the best way to go to pick playoff teams, Andy Staples writes.
• Illinois athletic director Mike Thomas envisions playing a game in Chicago every other year.
• Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis said he would welcome a night game against Michigan.
• Indiana AD Fred Glass says his athletic program is self-sustaining (subscription required).
• Brady Hoke talked about the need for leadership from his seniors during a speech to fans. Michigan missed out on Ty Isaac but has other options at running back.
• Athlon ranks Nebraska No. 14 and previews its season, while asking if Taylor Martinez is one of the league's top quarterbacks. A 92-yard romp through Yankee Stadium makes the list of most memorable Huskers touchdowns.
• Curt Warner's son hopes to follow in dad's footsteps at Penn State. Bill O'Brien will adjust his offense to fit his current players. Quarterbacks coach Charlie Fisher says Matt McGloin leads in the QB race.
• Purdue's Otis Armstrong once heard he was too small to be a running back. Now, he's headed to the College Football Hall of Fame.
• Ohio State AD Gene Smith said the tattoo scandal hurt him and his family.
• Former Wisconsin athletic director Pat Richter earned an honor. Wisconsin spent about $44,000 investigating sexual impropriety allegations against former athletics administrator John Chadima.
• Maize N Brew asks what will be good enough for Minnesota.

CHICAGO -- When the college football playoff push kicked off, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith planted himself in the campus-sites camp.

Smith favored having the semifinals on the campuses of the higher-seeded teams. The setup would give Big Ten teams like Ohio State an advantage they've never enjoyed in the current BCS/bowl setup -- nationally significant games on Midwest soil in late December or early January. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany was among the first major college football figures to stump for campus sites this winter.

"We've shifted," Smith told ESPN.com on Tuesday. "I was originally for campus sites, and I still go back there mentally every now and then as discussions occur, but the bowls have a really good system set up to host."

The reasons for the Big Ten's shift are well known by now. Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne said Tuesday that a playoff outside of the existing bowls would "pretty much destroy the bowl system." Preserving and protecting the Rose Bowl is paramount to Delany and the rest of the Big Ten brass.

Smith also thinks there are operational advantages to keeping the biggest games at bowl sites.

"There are certain schools that would put it on and host it extremely well," he said. "Others might be challenged with that. Bowls have done this a long time. They have great local organizing committees. ... And it's good for the game."

The strongest counterargument is that campus sites would ease the burden on college football fans. Rather than make separate trips for a league title game, a national semifinal and a national championship game, fans of some teams could have one of those games closer to their homes.

Another apparent plus for Big Ten backers is the potential weather advantage Big Ten teams could exploit by hosting games. Unlike squads in the South and West, Big Ten teams are conditioned to play cold-weather football, but they typically face the best from the SEC, Pac-12 and Big 12 in ideal conditions at places like the Rose Bowl, the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and University of Phoenix Stadium.

The thought of a college football playoff in the snow is both novel and exciting to some Big Ten fans. But Smith actually sees it as a drawback.

Brace yourselves, Woody and Bo ...

"Let's say Ohio State is hosting and it's January or December, and let's say it is 5 degrees," Smith said. "Is that right for the game? We're not pro. We need to figure out what's best for the game, and I think a fast surface, good weather is important for the game. It's important for the kids."

Delany, Osborne and others acknowledge that campus sites could favor the Big Ten, which hasn't won a national championship since after the 2002 season. But in surveying presidents, athletic directors, coaches and even players, the overwhelming majority favored the bowl sites.

"It would be a competitive advantage to have semifinal games at home fields," Osborne said. "... but the bowls have been good to us."

The sentiment isn't sitting well with some folks. The Big Ten might have been alone in advocating for campus sites, but it's fair to ask if the Big Ten gave up on the crusade far too easily.

Yahoo! Sports' Dan Wetzel writes today:

Somewhere Mike Slive of the SEC and Larry Scott of the Pac-12 are kicking back with a cackle of delight. These guys are angling for every possible edge while the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl sit in adjacent bathtubs, holding hands and waiting for the moment to be right.

Wait, the rest of college football has to be asking, you're not even going to fight and try to make us look like wimps for arguing against football in the cold?

Wait, you seriously are going to ask the same fan base to travel three times in a month -- Big Ten title game, semifinals and championship game, the last two at least via airplane? And you think we won't end up with the majority of the crowd?

The Rose Bowl's power over the Big Ten is something to behold. It makes normally intelligent men say ridiculous things.

Of the Big Ten groups advocating for playoffs at bowl sites, the coaches' position makes the least sense. These are guys who typically capitalize on every possible advantage presented to them. But they seem to value their players' bowl experience over the possibility of making Alabama or USC play them in the snow.

Why should the Big Ten care if TCU and Oregon have small stadiums and can't accommodate the media and the corporate sponsors? The Big Ten, for the most part, doesn't have those problems.

In my recent interview with Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman, I asked him why so many powerful people in the Midwest care so much about bowl games located so far away.

"It's part of the tradition of college football," Perlman said. "It is a good experience for student-athletes. It makes more sense in terms of ending the season than some kind of playoff. It helps the communities that have been supportive of intercollegiate football for a long time."

What about the local communities Big Ten schools can serve by keeping games on campus?

Wetzel writes:

There's no question Big Ten fans love the Rose Bowl, although not as much as they once did. They also like to win, also would like to shut the SEC up and also really like showing off their legendary stadiums and great cities, fighting against the idea that they live in some inhospitable, rusted-out region.

Plenty of them could use the economic impact of staging these massive events in the Midwest too.

That's not going to happen. The campus-sites ship has sailed. Perhaps it's a tradeoff the Big Ten made to ultimately ensure strong playoff access for league champions.

If and when the Big Ten champion qualifies for a playoff, however, it will more than likely play a virtual road game. The team will have to fight like heck to win.

A lot harder than the league did to have meaningful games on campus.

It's time once again for our series looking at the most indispensable players on each Big Ten squad entering the 2012 season.

All together now: this is not necessarily a listing of the best players on each team, but of those whose absence would cause the most pain because of their particular value or a lack of depth at their positions. Up now: Penn State.

Silas Redd, RB, Junior

Although Bill Belton had a nice spring, Penn State's backfield otherwise looked very thin. That makes Redd -- easily the team's best offensive weapon -- indispensable. Redd ran for 1,241 yards last season and was as good as any running back in the country during October. With the uncertainty at quarterback and at receiver, there's little doubt that head coach Bill O'Brien will ask Redd to carry a heavy load on offense. The Nittany Lions can't afford to lose him.

Jordan Hill, DT, Senior

Gerald Hodges is the best player on the Penn State defense, but Linebacker U could absorb the loss of a star at that position, even one as valuable as Hodges. It's much more difficult to replace talent at the defensive tackle position. Perhaps we're biased by how Devon Still raised his game as a senior en route to Big Ten defensive player of the year honors, but Hill looks like he's primed for a huge final season. He had 59 tackles and eight tackles for loss last year and will be the most experienced and accomplished figure in the middle of that Nittany Lions defensive front. Losing him would create a major hole that would not easily be filled.

Adam Rittenberg recaps the day at the Big Ten spring meetings, where the future postseason format and bowls were hot topics.

I'll be covering the final day of the Big Ten spring meetings in Chicago, so my regular chat is moving from Wednesday to noon ET Thursday.

Please join me then to recap the spring meetings, discuss the latest playoff developments and any other Big Ten issues that crop up.

Again, noon ET Thursday. See you then.

CHICAGO -- Big Ten teams will be playing fewer bowl games in the future. And they'll likely be playing some of them in different locations.

It's all part of a shifting bowl landscape that Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany discussed Tuesday at the league's spring meetings. Delany said there's a "very strong consensus" among the league's athletic directors that the bowl-eligibility requirement should increase from six wins to seven wins, a sentiment that's echoed nationally.

"We think it's better for our programs, better for our fans and better for the bowl system for us to have a winning season in order to qualify," Delany said. "... For us, it means redefining a successful year at 7-5 from the standpoint of a bowl season. We argued for 6-6. We've experienced 6-6. Now we're suggesting that it's in our best interest, the bowls' best interest as well as the other conferences that might benefit by these open slots to look at a 7-5 standard."

Teams that finished the regular season at 6-6 have been eligible for bowls the past six seasons. In 2006, the Big Ten sent two 6-6 teams (Minnesota and Iowa) to bowl games, and both lost. The Big Ten has had a total of seven 6-6 teams in bowls, including four last season (Illinois, Purdue, Ohio State and Northwestern). Only two Big Ten teams that finished 6-6 since 2006 -- Northwestern and Iowa in 2007 -- didn't make bowls.

Coaches like Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald and Purdue's Danny Hope oppose the increase from six to seven wins, but they're in the minority. Delany admits the increase "probably doesn't favor us," but he said it will help the health of the sport.

"We had one team in a bowl game last year at 6-7 [UCLA] that ended up at 6-8," he said. "... You got too much of a good thing, too much ice cream, too many bowl games, too many 6-6 seasons."

The Big Ten also could tweak its bowl lineup, which expires after the 2013 season. Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said he "would imagine it will change a little bit," and Delany suggested as much during his session with reporters. Although the bowl lineup has taken a backseat to playoff discussions and where the Rose Bowl fits in, it will garner more attention in the coming months.

Five of the Big Ten's seven non-BCS bowl partners -- Capital One, Outback, Gator, Meineke Car Care, TicketCity -- are located in two states (Florida and Texas). The three Florida bowls take place against SEC foes, while the Meineke Car Care and, in some years, the TicketCity, pit Big Ten teams against Big 12 opponents.

Translation: there's not much variety. Wisconsin played bowls in Orlando or Tampa in six consecutive years (2004-09); Michigan State has played in Orlando or Tampa in four of the past five seasons.

"When you have three bowls in Florida and you're a school that is constantly in that range for selection, your fan base could end up, in a five-year period, four times in the state of Florida," Delany said. "So does that depress the interest? Again, sometimes less is more. Is there a way to give them a taste of Florida and Phoenix and Texas and other places in California? We want to have the fan base excited about going, about who they're playing and about where they're playing.

"After 20 years of experience with bowls, how do we make the next round of bowls stimulating, interesting and responsive, not only to our coaches and our players but also our fan base."

CHICAGO -- Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany didn't reveal the future college football playoff model Tuesday, but he made it clear the process is shifting from what the format will be to how it will be determined and who will participate.

Although Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman recently told ESPN.com he and other presidents prefer a plus-one model, a true four-team playoff is much more likely. And the format almost certainly will take place within the existing bowls. That's the model that Delany, the Big Ten's athletic directors and the league's football coaches prefer.

"I had a conference call with our football coaches about a week ago," Delany said Tuesday at the league's spring meetings. "What they said to me was the 'how' is even more important than the 'what.' They were in favor of the Rose Bowl, the bowl system. They felt it was the least slippery slope. They understood on-campus events could be competitively favorable to them, but they were very clear that the events ought to occur in the context of the bowl system."

Delany maintained no format is set -- the commissioners have been asked to present two models to their constituencies -- but he suggested one isn't far from being finalized when he stated, "It will be demonstrably clear how flexible and how open the Rose Bowl has been in this process." The conference commissioners hope to finalize a format by July 1 and could do so at a June 20 meeting in Chicago.

What will take longer, of course, is how the teams are selected, always a hot topic in college football and one that will only get hotter. Delany wants to make that part of the process as transparent as possible.

"Regardless of how we go, it's going to be difficult for coaches and fans and programs and conferences to absorb," he said. "The conversation about the how and the who needs to be really open. Let's get coaches in the room and talk it out. Let's get commissioners in the room and talk it out. Let's do it in front of the media.

"Let's [let] everyone see the difficulty of these decisions and then let's make decisions and live with it."

Delany added that while the BCS has tried to do the right thing, it hasn't explained itself well at times.

"That would mean if we're going to use computers, people are more up front about what's in those computers," he said. "It would mean perhaps the pollsters that we have would have to refrain from ranking teams before they ever play. It would mean we would have to honestly discuss strength of schedule and how we measure it. ... If a computer guy is unwilling to explain to me and everybody else what's in his program, I don't think it ought to be part of the process. If a coach is arguing for championships, I'd like to hear the rationale behind that. If someone is arguing that you don't have to win championships and they're willing to live with a poll that is not even transparent, I'd like to hear that.

"And I'd like to hear coaches talk about the influence that a poll-only process, how that plays out in the nonconference scheduling."

Delany favors a "hybrid model" with a "quality-control cap" for selections: where the best conference champions are "honored" but allowances are made for elite teams that haven't won their leagues and/or divisions, as well as top independents like Notre Dame. He clarified his recent remarks to the Associated Press that many interpreted as a shot at reigning national champion Alabama, which didn't win the SEC or the West division but crushed LSU in the title game.

"I wasn't concluding that those teams ought not to be included," Delany said. "I was simply stating a case for some sort of hybrid combination. I know it might not have been taken that way, and I could have been clearer. But I have heard from my in-laws in Knoxville, Chattanooga and Birmingham that they don't like [former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer's plan, to have only league champions in a playoff] and they wanted to clearly understand what I was trying to say."

Delany called the polls "good indicators" but, like several Big Ten athletic directors, wants to further explore the possibility of a selection committee and how to balance the interest of independents and at-large teams. And he wants to do so in a transparent forum.

He added that the model could be finalized before the selection component.

"What has everybody been focused on? The model," Delany said. "But these other issues are very significant. Our coaches, 'Jim, we'd like to hear about the what, but what about the how and the who?'"

Answering those questions is the next step in the playoff process.

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany discusses the future of bowls and college football's postseason format at the league's spring meetings.

Had colleague Ivan Maisel not spelled out a little-known rule about the College Football Hall of Fame's induction procedures, there would likely be some righteous outrage in Lincoln, Neb., and Columbus, Ohio, today.

Maisel wrote this morning that the Hall has a rule preventing the selection of players from the same school in back-to-back years. That must have been the only thing keeping Nebraska's Tommie Frazier and Ohio State's Orlando Pace from being elected this year.

Frazier is simply one of the greatest college football players of all time, leading the Cornhuskers to two national titles. Pace is the only player ever to win the Lombardi Award twice as one of the best offensive linemen in the history of the sport.

But Nebraska and Ohio State both had inductees last year in Will Shields and Eddie George, respectively. So it was no dice for Frazier and Pace. What makes no sense, though, is that both players were on the ballot for induction this year, even though they apparently weren't eligible.

Sometimes it's an honor just to be nominated. But in the case of these two legends, it will be a miscarriage of justice if they're not enshrined. Certainly, you can't say that Syracuse's Art Monk -- who had 102 catches in his college career and never more than 40 in a season for the Orange -- is more deserving than Pace or Frazier when it comes to college achievements.

The rule does not seem necessary, given how many great players come from major schools. But the voters should do the right thing and elect Frazier and Pace next year -- unanimously.

CHICAGO -- It has taken some time, but Big Ten nonconference schedules are finally beefing up.

Michigan opens the 2012 season against Alabama and Michigan State kicks off against Boise State. The Spartans also have contracts to face Oregon, Alabama and Miami. Ohio State has Virginia Tech and Oklahoma on its future schedules. Northwestern, which used to shy away from tough non-league foes, has series set with Stanford, California and Notre Dame. Traditional series with teams like Notre Dame (Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue) and Iowa State (Iowa) aren't going anywhere.

Add in the Big Ten's upcoming scheduling partnership with the Pac-12, set to begin in 2017, and things are looking up with non-league slates.

But will the trend continue in the post-playoff era?

Schedule strength is one of many components that college football's brass must weigh as they try to decide the selection criteria for a four-team playoff. The current BCS system rarely rewards teams -- or in the Pac-12's case, an entire league -- for challenging themselves during non-league play.

"It would be my desire to have strength of schedule play a much more significant role than it does now, which is there's no role for strength of schedule," Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis said. "It's how many wins you get, not who you play. I think we need to come up with a system that motivates schools to want to play tougher non-conference games during the season."

Hollis feels so strongly about schedule strength that he wants it to be factored in selecting bowl teams, even for minor bowls.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith, who advocates a scheduling model that includes one marquee non-league game a year, is concerned about where schedule strength fits into the playoff selections.

"Will this make some teams play nobody in the nonconference schedule?" Smith said. "The strength of schedule in the polls changed. It's not as heavily weighted. So now, do I just not play Cal and Texas and all these schools? I don't know. That's going to be interesting to see. We cannot do anything that affects the greatness of the regular season."

The Big Ten and Pac-12 aren't going to rescind their scheduling partnership, which is designed to have 12 intra-league games per year. But if SEC teams can schedule patsies every year and reach a playoff based on the strength of their conference, where's the incentive to beef up?

"One of the reasons we're looking at the Pac-12 coalition is to instill that in our schedule rather than force it in," Hollis said. "But nationally, we need to have that in play, both for bowl eligibility and for championship qualification.

CHICAGO -- Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith has chaired the NCAA basketball tournament selection committee, so he knows a thing or two about difficult decisions and fan backlash.

While a four-team playoff in college football will please most fans of the sport, Smith thinks it won't mitigate the debate about who's in and who's out. Just the opposite, in fact.

Smith and his fellow Big Ten athletic directors on Monday began studying the polls, the final BCS standings and any other rankings since the 1992 season. They found that differentiating between No. 4 and No. 5 is often tougher than choosing the two best teams to play in the national title game.

"When you start looking at [Nos.] 3, 4, 5 and 6, you're going to be able to put a piece of paper between those teams," Smith said.

The final regular-season polls from recent seasons often show small differences between No. 4 and No. 5.

In 2010, No. 4 Wisconsin had only six more points than No. 5 Stanford in the AP Poll, 22 more points in the Harris Poll and 37 more points in the Coaches' Poll. In 2009, both Florida and Boise State were within 70 points of No. 4 Cincinnati in the AP and Coaches' polls. In 2004, the AP Poll had Utah at No. 4 and Texas at No. 5, while the teams were flipped in the Coaches' Poll, separated by just 24 points. In 2007, No. 4 Georgia led No. 5 Virginia Tech by just 35 points in the Coaches' Poll. The final Harris Poll that year had USC at No. 5 and Virginia Tech at No. 6.

"Who's going to pick that 4 and 5?" Smith said. "It's just like in the NCAA tournament. Who's left out? That's what's going to happen."

It's not surprising that the conference commissioners spent so much time on potential selection procedures for the playoff at last month's BCS meetings in Florida. Several Big Ten ADs say there's support for a selection committee to be used for the future format.

The playoff also will put more teams in the mix for berths than the current system, when usually only one team can have a legitimate claim to one of the spots in the title game.

"In the FCS, now they've got 20 teams in the playoff and they're talking about going to 24 because the 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th teams are not happy," Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne said. "Well, you can only imagine what's going to happen here. Every team probably in the top 10 or 12, they're going to have some argument as to why they should be in the four-team playoff.

"People think this will settle it on the field, this will diminish the amount of controversy. I don't think that'll happen at all. If anything, it will escalate it because you have more teams involved."