FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long said he’s “not necessarily real excited about playoffs,” but he understands why college football is moving in that direction.

When a four-team playoff begins replacing the Bowl Championship Series model in 2014, some estimate the television rights will command $400 million to $500 million compared to the $155 million ESPN is paying for the BCS games.

“I don’t like adding games to the season. I don’t like making us more professional,” Long said. “I think professional football is playoffs, and that’s what they’re about.

“I like the college [bowl]system. However, I’m also a realist, and I realize the revenue that’s generated from this is going to help athletic programs, as well as universities.”

Long said if playoffs had to become part of college football, he favors the four team model approved by university administrators earlier this week, which will incorporate two semifinals as part of bowl games with a championship game. Other bowls will continue to be played among teams that aren’t in the playoffs.

“I like this format, the best four teams being picked,” Long said. “I like keeping some involvement in the bowl system. So I think those things are positives. What needs to continue to be worked out is how the selection will occur.”

A selection committee, expected to include college administrators such as conference commissioners and athletic directors, will choose the four playoff teams, but the number of people on the committee and the makeup of it have yet to be determined. Some have suggested former coaches and media members be included.

“I think a committee is the way to go,” Long said. “However, the makeup of that committee is still important. I think in a sport like football, it is extremely difficult for any person to divorce themselves from their associations. So if I’m a long-time head football coach in conference X, as much as I’ll try to honestly be objective, I just think there’s that human element, where you’re biased towards your conference, your region of country, and that will be difficult to overcome.

“It can be overcome, but I think it’s critical who you get to make those decisions.”

Long said he’s heard the committee size varying from 10 to 25 members.

“I think there will be a need for people to recuse themselves from the process,” he said. “That’s all part of the details that need to be worked out. They’re going to need to be transparent. Obviously, that’s going to be critical to this whole process.”

Long said he gets “a little bit concerned” when he hears that being a conference champion will figure into the selection process. An SEC team has won the past six BCS championships, and Alabama beat SEC West rival LSU in the title game in January.

“Reading some of the press releases, and that’s really all I’ve done at this point with regard to selection, the term ‘weighted’ for conference champion or ‘preference’ or whatever the term they use, I think we have to be concerned and keep our eyes open about that,” Long said. “Because there are going to be many times two of those four best teams are going to be in the SEC.”

Maybe three or four of the best will be from the SEC?

“Well, we’ve seen two for sure,” Long said of the Alabama-LSU game. “I think in any new format, three [from the SEC] is probably highly unlikely. But two, I think this conference has proven its strength and having two would be a regular occurrence in my opinion.

“Now that we’re going to have a playoff system, I want it to be fair, and I want [Arkansas] to have an equal shot to make it into that four-team playoff as anybody else.”

Long said he doesn’t believe Arkansas or other SEC teams need to upgrade their nonconference schedules to make the playoffs.

“An ACC [Atlantic Coast Conference] school may need to beef up their nonconference schedule, because certainly what they run through in a season - in my opinion - is not the same as what we run through in the SEC,” Long said.

The four-team playoff system has a 12-year contract.

“I think the message here is they don’t want every year for all the discussion to be about how it’s going to change,” Long said. “I think they want to put that behind them for a good number of years.

“I think this is a good format for now. In the future, I can see it evolving to maybe more than four, to eight. I don’t see a 16-team playoff. “

Long said he would enjoy being on the playoffs selection committee and believes he is qualified as a former assistant coach at Rice, Duke and North Carolina State and having been an administrator at schools in five of the BCS conferences: Michigan, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh and Arkansas.

“I think I’ve seen the strengths of conferences,” Long said. “But it would be difficult for me to be on the committee ... to divorce myself from my allegiances.

“It’s clear I believe the SEC is the strongest conference. I think we’ve proven that as it’s played out. So I would have that vibe going in.”

Sports, Pages 27 on 07/01/2012