BCS Changes: Why Now? Who Wins and Who Loses? College football is headed toward a new era, with a four-team playoff deciding the champion starting in 2014. As the conference commissioners have said over and over during the six months it has taken for them to come up with a playoff plan to present to university presidents for approval, "The devil is in the details." Let's explore some of those details. For years, the Big Ten and then-Pac-10 were adamantly against a playoff. What changed? Well, the Pac-10 and it's commissioner for starters. Larry Scott has pushed the league to be more progressive and its members have reaped millions of dollars in rewards because of his bold moves. With Scott at the helm, the Pac-12 became less of an obstacle to progress. "From our conference's perspective, historically we've been very conservative, protective of the status quo, but we've had a complete cultural transformation," Scott said Thursday. In the Big Ten, as much as Commissioner Jim Delany has been against a playoff, he realized the BCS just wasn't worth fighting so hard for anymore. "No system can stand that much criticism and be sustainable," he said Thursday. FILE - In this July 26, 2011, file photo, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott talks during the Pac-12 NCAA college football media day in Los Angeles. The BCS commissioners, including Scott, are backing a playoff plan with the sites for the national semifinals rotating among the major bowl games and a selection committee picking the teams, Notre Dame Athletic Director Swarbrick said Wednesday, June 20, 2012. Once he realized change was inevitable, he made sure to play a major role in shaping it. "I don't think there is any question we didn't lead the parade, but we tried to be a part of it," Delany said. BCS supporters would often boast they were leaving money on the table for the good of college football. Whether their motivation was quite so noble is debatable, but there was never any question that a playoff would bring in more money than the BCS, with its hit-or-miss bowl games and often controversial championship matchup. With budgets being slashed at universities all over the country, the people in charge could no longer justify leaving so much behind. Just in television rights alone, a playoff stands to bring in at least $300 million a year. The current BCS and Rose Bowl deals are worth about $155 million annually. Cha-ching! The bowl system will never be the same. The BCS championship game had already made the high-profile bowls less relevant. Now take the four best teams out of the bowls and put them in semifinals and a bowl bid will feel like even more of a consolation prize. Think of it this way: The LOSER of the Big Ten championship game is more likely to play in the Rose Bowl than the winner. If it's college football, the Southeastern Conference must be winning. The playoff negotiations were no different. SEC Commissioner Mike Slive, whose teams have won the last six BCS titles, has been pushing for a playoff since 2008. It took a little longer than he would have liked, but he got his way.