Published June 26, 2012 - 8:47am
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Today, the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee will vote on the four-team playoff that was approved by the conference commissioners last week.
The approval by the conference commissioners confirms that unless something is vastly unforeseen, the four best teams will play in that playoff, and the championship game will be bid out to a seemingly neutral site (bidders are lining up as we speak).
Money talks, and that is certainly the case with the playoff becoming a commonality in 2014.
People have been throwing around very crooked numbers all over the place for the last two to three weeks, even a few months, about how much revenue the playoff could bring.
Yesterday, Sporting News’ Matt Hayes cited a BCS source who said the four-game playoff could generate $5 billion over the life of the deal.
BCS source to SN: new TV deal could approach $5 billion over 10 years, depending on value of separate semifinal and CG deals.
— Matt Hayes(@Matt_HayesSN) June 25, 2012
If the championship game and the semifinals are all bid out separately, there is a chance to make this type of money. And that’s what most are counting on. But the semifinals will be the wildcard as to how much the revenue potential really will be.
At $500 million annually, $5 billion over 10 years, it nearly triples the current BCS contract of $174 million.
