New home for BCS

ESPN's taking over the BCS.

The Disney-owned cable company will have the broadcast rights to all five Bowl Championship Series bowl games starting in 2011, ending the awkward marriage between college football and Fox.

ESPN will pay $125 million annually, between Jan. 2011 (the '10 season) and Jan. 2014, for the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and BCS Championship Game, according to USA Today. ABC, also owned by Disney, owns the rights to the Rose Bowl, the fifth BCS game, and ESPN will have the option to move that game to cable, according to USA Today.

Fox, which took over the BCS bowls in 2006 despite not broadcasting any regular-season college games, had been paying $82.5 million annually for its four BCS games.

Grouping the broadcast rights with one television partner might be the first step in changing the postseason format. ABC's contract with the Rose Bowl, worth $37.5 annually, runs through Jan. '14.

That means the earliest any change — a Plus-One or an eight-team playoff — could potentially take place is for the '14 season — six BCS computer scrambles from today.

Pro-playoff college football fans (everyone?) have an advocate in President-elect Barack Obama who tackled the subject on "60 Minutes."

It's one thing to win the White House, another to take the money out of college presidents' pockets. ACC commissioner, and current BCS coordinator, John Swofford has already volleyed Obama's public plea back to Washington.