How the playoff came to be

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It was Jan. 3, 2005, and Auburn had beaten Virginia Tech in the Nokia Sugar Bowl to complete a 13-0 season. The Tigers hadn't been as sharp as usual in the 16-13 victory, but they found a way to win, even though they would have rather been playing for a national title one night later in the FedEx Orange Bowl.

Auburn had been shut out of the championship game despite its 12-0 record, an SEC title and three wins against top-10 opponents. USC and Oklahoma, which began the season ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the polls, ran the table as well. Auburn opened the season outside the top 15 and could never enter the top two, sparking outrage from SEC circles and elsewhere.

Tuberville knew the 2004 team would never be together like this again, so the Tigers coach ditched his typical postseason spiel.

"Guys, here's the deal," he began. "You guys started something tonight that will change college football. It's going to take five, 10, 15, 20 years, but because of what this group did, went undefeated, it opened the eyes of people across the country.

"How do you give a national championship to somebody when there's another team out there undefeated?"

There were actually three left out -- Utah and Boise State also had perfect records -- but only one from a major conference.

"It's going to happen," Tuberville concluded. "I don't know when, but it's going to happen."

Ten years later, it is happening. The first College Football Playoff is here, as Sunday's selections set semifinal pairings of Alabama-Ohio State in the Allstate Sugar Bowl and Oregon-Florida State in the Rose Bowl Game Presented By Northwestern Mutual.

The path to a playoff has been a long and rocky one, but the conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletic directors overseeing the Bowl Championship Series eventually embraced change. This is the story of the playoff's evolution, from 2004 to 2014, in the words of the men charged with overseeing the game during that period.

(Note: SEC commissioner Mike Slive was unavailable to comment for the story while undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.)