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New Orleans • Change may be coming to college football's championship structure.

Eleven conference commissioners will meet here Tuesday, the day after LSU and Alabama tangled in the BCS national championship game at the Superdome, to open talks about the way the sport selects its champion.

Implement a plus-one, a four-team playoff where semifinal winners meet for a championship?

Have the BCS get out of the major bowl business and just select the finalist field, with a rating formula or selection committee?

Or no change at all.

"It's not easy, but we'll roll up our sleeves and do what's best for the game," BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said.

The current system matches the two teams that finish atop the BCS standings. The rest of the BCS bowls are tied to conferences but with rules that allow for flexibility in selection.

In this system, a pair of teams, Michigan and Virginia Tech, were invited to play in the Sugar Bowl despite being ranked below others, like Boise State, Kansas State and Arkansas.

What would become of current BCS bowls is uncertain, but everything is on the table.

"We have a real opportunity for the first time to look at several models, and start the process if there's change in the BCS structure," said Craig Thompson, commissioner of the Mountain West.

If change happens, look for the 2013 season to be the final one under the current system. That would take the BCS through its contract with ESPN.

This isn't the first time college football leaders have discussed change. In 2008, a four-team playoff model was considered but didn't gain enough support. The Big 12 stood against the plan.

Trash talk

Heisman Trophy finalist Tyrann Mathieu of LSU has been known to talk a little trash on the field. He even went so far as to learn the names of some of the Crimson Tide's mothers.

Alabama receiver Marquis Maze said he'd be ready for the head games.

"I can't say what he says, but like I said, there's a level of respect between us and them," Maze said. "We respect them off the field, they respect us off the field. On the field, all I know is it's my team versus their team."