Video of ESPN Anchor - BCS Seriously Looking at Play-Offs - Michigan's Dirty Little Secret

ESPN anchor didn’t like suggestion that she was flirting with Wes Welker BCS brass work on whittling down options for postseason format HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) -- When Bowl Championship Series officials leave the beachside hotel where they've gathered to hammer out the future of college football's postseason, they want to have the choices narrowed down to two or three. STAPLES: Three questions will determine change The 11 conference commissioners and Notre Dame's athletic director met Wednesday for about eight hours to discuss overhauling how a champion is determined and possibly implementing a four-team playoff. It was the fourth such gathering this year. They reconvene Thursday and BCS executive director Bill Hancock said they all agreed it's time to start crossing items off the list. "I think that's what everyone wants to do. Get down to two, maybe three," he said. "I think we're making good progress on that. I think we're going to make it." One thing is clear: "The status quo is off the table," Hancock said. Though he cautiously added they have not ruled out making over the current system that guarantees only a No. 1 vs. No. 2 championship game. But all signs point toward that being unlikely, and that by the 2014 season the BCS as fans have known it will be gone. "I would say there is an expectation that there will be significant change," Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said. Delany and his fellow commissioners arrived in south Florida with four options to discuss, but much of the focus has been on a four-team playoff with two national semifinals and a title game. That model comes with many variables, such as where the games will be played, how the teams will be picked and how the bowls fit in - if they do at all. The role of the bowls represents a potential obstacle. Specifically, the Rose Bowl. On Tuesday, bowl executives from the Sugar, Orange, Fiesta and Rose met with the conference commissioners to give their input and answer some questions about how their games could work in a new postseason system. An option being discussed could force those traditional bowls to give up holding their games in years in which they host a semifinal or championship game. That could mean a year without a Rose Bowl, which has been played every year since 1916 - most of those games matching the champions of the Big Ten and Pac-12. "We feel like we have something very special and unique in college football," Rose Bowl spokeswoman Gina Chappin said. "We went into the room with the intention of reaffirming what we are." The Big Ten and Pac-12 don't just play in the Rose Bowl, they're partners with the game. Delany and Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott have made it clear that protecting that lucrative partnership is a priority. "I just want to make sure that the changes that we make are evolutionary," Delany said. "That they support the regular season. That they're from a Rose Bowl perspective, that they sustain that tradition. That we're also able to produce something that the public appreciates and supports. "You want to control change. You want to have evolution, not revolution because you don't know that the unintended consequences will be." Delany and Hancock insisted the Rose Bowl won't stand in the way of change. "Everybody is going to have to make some changes," Hancock said. "Everybody recognizes the importance of the Rose Bowl." There have also been discussions about playing semifinals on campus sites and having only the championship game at a neutral site, like a college football Super Bowl. That idea was pushed by the Big Ten, which has long desired getting teams from warmer climates on its frozen turf for big games. But there are concerns that playoff games on campuses could be logistical nightmares and the idea doesn't seem to be gaining support. "I think maybe it has more disadvantages than advantages," Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive said. "One of the disadvantages is I think when you're trying to determine who's going to play for the national championship, what's the competitive environment in which you put a team to play for the national championship. "That's not to say that I wouldn't listen to it." The full group hasn't even started talking about a new model for revenue distribution, which Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson predicted would be "contentious." How willing Delany and Scott are to consider options that could minimize the importance of the Rose Bowl will be pivotal in determining what proposals the commissioners take with them when they leave Florida. "How it ends up," Delany said, "to be determined." The end is near, though. Hancock said that the commissioners would like to be able to present a new format to the presidential oversight committee for approval by July 4. Maize of Lies — Michigan's Dirty Little Secret Finally Rises By Tony Gerdeman Everything that you thought you knew about the "Maize and Blue" is officially a lie, and has been for years. Only now, through information gathered during a three-hour The-Ozone investigation Wednesday after supper spanning both Google AND Twitter, do we see just how outright and bold this lie is. Uniple sources made The-Ozone aware Wednesday evening of one of the great deceptions in modern American sports—the University of Michigan's beloved color of "Maize" is, in fact, called "Sun", and not "Maize". A July 18, 2010 piece appearing in The Michigan Daily, which is the University of Michigan student newspaper, details the deception, which began in 2007 when the athletic department signed an apparel deal with Adidas, thus ending their relationship with Nike. "Nike also copyrighted the color 'Maize,' so Adidas actually had to make a new version of our school color, now known as 'Sun'..." That's right. "Sun". How they have managed to keep this kraken of deceit a secret for so long is a testament to their will, as well as their duplicitousness. How can the University of Michigan continue to call itself the "Maize and Blue" when the very company making their apparel calls Michigan's yellow hue "Sun"? It's almost as sad as a husband who "leaves for work every day" to keep up appearances with his wife even though he was fired from his job months earlier. How Deep It Went The-Ozone's investigation reveals a five-year pattern of half-truths and deceptions, spanning two athletic directors and three head coaches. According to sources who didn't want to be named for fear of retribution from the University's "Colorati", the lying doesn't just stop with the administration. Hundreds of athletes and thousands of students are also indelibly tied to this lie with no desire to break their own personal "UMerta". It is one thing to accept a lie, it is another to revel in it and even market it as this University has. Since when is it okay to embrace a lie? Is that what is being taught at the University of Michigan these days? Not only is the athletic department neck-deep in this fallacy, but so is the student body and apparently the faculty as well. It is a "diag of dependence", with each liar depending on the other to keep up the ruse. While it's disgusting, their ability to stick to the deception without fail is simply remarkable. The person who programmed these automatons should be given the Nobel Prize in Scientific Achievement. And then thrown in prison. Will Ann Arbor Discover Trouble? Despite our three-hour investigation, we were unable to find a single representative from Adidas or Nike who would speak with us. The same goes for officials from the University of Michigan. Granted, it would have helped had we contacted any of the three, but sometimes during an investigation we're not able to "investigate" every little detail. Still, if Michigan continues to falsely call "sun" "maize", then you have to wonder how much longer Nike will tolerate it. While we have had no sources tell us that Nike is upset with Adidas and Michigan, we have also had no sources tell us that they aren't. The University of Michigan Needs to Unwrap Its Present It's time to stop living in the past, Michigan. It's time to start waking up to the present. Make today a new morning. A new "sun" rise, if you will. It's time to ditch the "maize", since it's not even the color that you are wearing anymore. Adidas gave you $60 million for a reason, and it's time to embrace your prodigal "sun". Sure, it's terrible now, but "The Sun and Blue" will eventually have a ring to it. Hell, "The Maize and Blue" was equally terrible in its infancy, and through its adolescence, and then of course on into adulthood, but we got used to it, didn't we? Give sun a chance. Maybe try it in a new fight song. "The Ol' Sun and Blue" Trollying forward, man prancers we Proudly running, a galloping few We try our best, a failing quest Because we are the Sun and the Blue And just repeat that like six times. My guess is that you'll get used to it pretty quickly.