Pac-12 Commish: ‘There will be change’

Jan 11, 2012, 9:53 PM | Updated: 10:20 pm

It would appear the snoozefest that was Monday’s BCS
National Championship Game has inspired change.

Rumblings that a playoff-type system could be on the way
have grown louder in recent days, though Pac-12
Commissioner Larry Scott told Arizona Sports 620’s Burns
and Gambo that it doesn’t mean change is imminent.

“Obviously there’s complicated details, otherwise it’s
something that would have been figured out before now,” he
said. “I wouldn’t go as far to say anything’s a foregone
conclusion, but I think there is a sense that there are
real flaws in the current system that need to be improved.

“I’m pretty confident saying there will be change, some
significant change.”

Scott is unsure of what the change would be, and said he
does not have a specific proposal for what he’d like to
see happen. Yet.

He said his first concern is the Pac-12, which has seen
significant growth in ratings and revenue the last few
years.

“It’s really off the charts,” he said. “I want to make
sure regular season college football – which in my
opinion, is the best regular season in all of sports –
continues to stay vibrant and not just a prelude to the
equivalent of March Madness, which has really sucked a
lot of the value from the regular season.”

Then, of course, there’s the “Grandaddy of Them All,” the
Rose Bowl. That, Scott said, is something that needs to be
protected, not destroyed.

“We are, along with the Big Ten, the envy of the rest of
college football because we’ve got the best bowl out
there,” he said. “I’m not for anything that’s going to
open that up more to other conferences.”

So is a playoff system worth possibly sacrificing
tradition? Many say yes, but there’s a faction out there
that disagrees. One thing that seems likely, though, is
that change is on the horizon.

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Pac-12 Commish: ‘There will be change’