New postseason format tweak ensures spot for lesser leagues

The new college football postseason system will have six games as originally planned, but now a spot in the Bowl Championship Series marquee bowls will be reserved for the best team from a group of five conferences that includes the Big East and the Mountain West.

The tweak to the BCS postseason format that will start in 2014 was made Monday in Denver during a meeting of conference commissioners and university presidents.

In September, a proposal was put forth to add a seventh game to the format that would match the best team from the Big East, Mountain West, Conference USA, Sun Belt or Mid-American Conference against a team from the Pac-12 or Big 12.

But ultimately that plan was dumped, and instead a guaranteed spot was created to give those conferences access to the top games.

The national semifinals will rotate through six bowl games, setting up two playoff games and four major bowl games every season. The title game will be bid out each year through a separate process similar to the Super Bowl.

■ WASHINGTON STATE - Coach Mike Leach denied his players are subjected to any type of abuse, as alleged by star receiver Marquess Wilson.

Wilson made the allegations in a letter he released Saturday in which he quit the team and also complained that the coaching staff would "belittle, intimidate and humiliate us."

Leach said during his regular Monday meeting with reporters: "There is no truth about it at all." He described Wilson as a disgruntled player.

Washington State president Elson Floyd on Sunday asked the school's athletic department and the Pac-12 to conduct separate investigations into Wilson's allegations.

■ FLORIDA - Quarterback Jeff Driskel has a sprained right ankle and is doubtful for the No. 7 Gators' game Saturday against Jacksonville State. Coach Will Muschamp said fellow sophomore Jacoby Brissett likely will start against the lower-division Gamecocks.

■ TENNESSEE - Linebacker Curt Maggitt will miss the remainder of the season after tearing an ACL on Saturday in a 51-48 overtime loss to Missouri.

■ LOUISVILLE - Running back Senorise Perry will miss the remainder of the Cardinals' season with a torn right ACL.

■ HOUSTON - Defensive back D.J. Hayden checked out of the hospital, six days after taking a hit in practice that tore a major vein that feeds the heart, requiring immediate surgery.