College football playoff begins in 2014 - KTIV News 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and Sports

College football will finally have a playoff. Come 2014, the BCS is dead.

A committee of university presidents on Tuesday approved the BCS commissioners' plan for a four-team playoff to start in the 2014 season.

The move completes a six-month process in which the commissioners have been working on a new way to determine a college football champion. Instead of simply matching the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country in a championship game after the regular season, the way the Bowl Championship Series has done since 1998, the new format will create a pair of national semifinals. No. 1 will play No. 4, No. 2 will play No. 3.

The winners will advance the national championship game.

The teams will be selected by a committee, similar to the way the NCAA basketball tournament field is set.

There are still some details to work out, but all the decision-makers are on board.

"We want to keep a balance of regular season validity and enthusiasm," said Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany.  "And, we've looked really honestly at the professional sports models, as well as the basketball model and we think the more robust the postseason is, the more negative affects it has on the regular season. And, right now the regular season is the best in sports and we intend to keep it that way."