BCS officials announced Thursday they are recommending a four-team playoff to determine the national champion beginning in 2014.

"Having carefully reviewed calendars and schedules, we believe that either an eight-team or a 16-team playoff would diminish the regular season and harm the bowls," the BCS said in a statement released after their meeting in Hollywood, Fla. "College football's regular season is too important to diminish and we do not believe it's in the best interest of student-athletes, fans, or alumni to harm the regular season.

"Accordingly, as we proceed to review our options for improving the postseason, we have taken off the table both an eight-team and 16-team playoff."

The format of the proposed four-team playoff has yet to be determined.

"We will continue to meet and review the exact structure for what a new postseason could look like," BCS executive director Bill Hancock said. "We are making substantial progress. We will present to our conferences a very small number of four-team options, each of which could be carried out in a number of ways."

The proposed playoff models likely will include several options:

--- A four-team playoff with the semifinals and final rotated among the existing BCS bowl games -- Sugar, Fiesta, Orange and Rose.

---A four-team playoff with the semifinals rotated among the existing BCS bowl games with the final held at a neutral site to be determined by a bidding process.

--- A four-team playoff with the semifinals and final held at either the existing BCS bowl game sites or neutral sites, determined by a bid process.

---A four-team playoff with the semifinals held on campus and the final held at either an existing BCS bowl game site or neutral site.

The BCS also announced there will no longer be automatic qualifier and non-AQ conferences.

The options will be presented to schools and any plan must be approved by the NCAA Presidential Oversight Committee.