Who (and what) will determine college football playoff teams?

George Schroeder, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

GRAPEVINE, Texas – The big, sexy decisions — scrapping the Bowl Championship Series, landing the TV deal, distributing the resulting megabucks — have been made. But the choices most critical to college football's new postseason structure will be determined in the weeks ahead.

In two days of meetings ending Thursday, the commissioners of the Football Bowl Subdivision conferences and Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick focused on the makeup of the selection committee for the playoff, as well as the protocol it would follow in choosing four teams.

"If you don't get that right, it's hard to get the rest of it right," Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said.

No decisions were reached in a conference room at the Grand Hyatt at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. Many details remain to be hashed out before the BCS' spring meetings April 23-25 in Pasadena, Calif., when several announcements are expected to be made – including the site of the first championship game, the selection of three "host" bowls to join the Rose, Sugar and Orange bowls as semifinal playoff hosts, and even a name and logo for the playoff (it won't be the BCS), which will begin with the 2014 season.

Each of those topics was discussed, but the selection committee occupied most of the commissioners' time, with good reason.

"This isn't gonna succeed or fail based on what day of the week we play on, or what sequence the games are played in," Swarbrick said. "It's gonna be about who's playing — and that's all about the selection committee."

There is emerging consensus that the committee will have 14 to 20 members. Each FBS conference will have a representative — likely drawn from a pool of former administrators, though retired coaches might also be considered — along with several "at-large" representatives who could include retired media members. Football experience will be emphasized.

"You need people that know the game and understand the game and have experience and wisdom and integrity and respect," Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford said.

The committee's function and process will be similar to the NCAA basketball tournament committee. Commissioners have discussed plans to develop data and comprehensive reports — for example, like the "Nitty Gritty" used by the basketball committee to compare teams. Those will be critical, because the football committee's guidelines will include a new model for ranking teams.

College football has traditionally been dominated by polls, which are driven by wins — and more important, losses. The selection committee will instead be charged with deeper deliberation: strength of schedule, head-to-head results, conference championships, injuries, and so on.

"I think we all anticipate a very different way of evaluating teams," Swarbrick said. "(Instead of) the way one loss can hurt you in the polls, a committee is really evaluating who you played, how you played and where you played. (A loss) might not have anywhere near the consequence that it does with pollsters."

But comparisons with basketball are imperfect. The four-team field is much smaller, and so is the sample size (12 or 13 games vs. 35), which makes the stakes — and scrutiny — much higher.

"Everything about the selection committee is intensified and accentuated," said Swofford, as compared to the basketball committee. "Everything is accelerated."

As they try to get it right, these next few decisions by the commissioners might feel the same way.