Hancock said a major step was taken this week

College football is on the cusp of a major shift, but for now, the changing language of the game’s power brokers offers hope to those clamoring for a better louis vuitton sunglasses sale way to decide a national champion. For the first time, the game’s decision makers were comfortable using the word playoff as three days of meetings about the sport’s postseason concluded in South Florida. Many details must be worked out, but on Thursday, conference commissioners and Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick decided the game needed a four-team playoff to crown a champion. “Yes, we’ve agreed to use the P-word,” Pacific-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said. If approved, the playoff — which would include two semifinals and a title game — will begin in 2014, once a four-year TV contract with ABC/ESPN expires. In the process, one of the longest-standing controversies in sports would subside. “They are listening to the fans,” Bill Hancock, executive director of the Bowl Championship Series, said of the 11 commissioners and Swarbrick. “They get it. People would like to do something different.” The issue of a college football playoff has long divided conference commissioners and university presidents, even as the bowl system has consistently failed to deliver B.C.S. bowl matchups and a national championship game that everyone could agree on. Many fans, coaches and players believed there louis vuitton ring was a better, more fair way to determine who played in college football’s showcase games. Hancock said a major step was taken this week, though many more steps remain. Beyond the four-team format, major questions remain, including how the teams will be selected, the time and location of the games, and whether any bowls would be part of the format. “If this happens, this will be a seismic change in college football,” Hancock said. Entering the week, changes in college football’s postseason had moved at a glacial pace. Now, though, decision-makers will be on an accelerated schedule. During the next six weeks, commissioners will present several four-team models during individual conference meetings and seek approval of a plan by the next time the commissioners meet, June 20 in Chicago. A week later, university presidents would be asked to sign off. Hancock said they would like to have a format agreed upon by July 4. Scott, who joined the Pac-12 in 2009, said he could not believe it had taken so long to reach this point. “It’s frankly a little slower than I hoped it would be,” he said. “We’ve had five or six meetings like this. I would have liked to have seen us more further, faster. But it’s complicated and there are a lot of different points of view.” Before agreeing on a four-game playoff, there was much discussion about an 8- or 16-team format, as well as the so-called plus-one format — which would involve the selection of two teams after the bowls to play in a title game. “We’ve met a lot of hours,” Mike Slive, the Southeastern Conference commissioner, said. “There isn’t any element of this that hasn’t been thoroughly vetted.” Scott said once one of the four-team formats was Bestseller louis vuitton shoes for men discount on sale 2012 blue approved, the other pieces should fall into place. In the end, the biggest sticking point will be how to decide which teams play in the big games. “It’s clear there’s no consensus on how to chose the four,” Scott said.