The BCS Presidential Oversight Committee approved a 12-year plan for a college football playoff system on Tuesday that will eliminate the current Bowl Championship Series, beginning in 2014. The committee included presidents from each of the FBS conferences as well as Notre Dame, and met in Washington D.C. to approve the plan.

The semi-final round will match the No. 1- and No. 4-ranked teams and the No. 2- and No.3-ranked teams, with the winners advancing to a national championship game. The teams will be ranked according to a selection committee, similar to the current setup of the NCAA Basketball tournament.

The current bowl system will remain in place.

“It’s a best of both worlds result that captures the excitement of the playoff while keeping the best regular season in sports and the tradition of the bowls,” Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said in a press conference.

The championship game will be awarded to the highest bidder, while the semi-finals will rotate among six different bowl games. One will take place on New Year’s Eve, while the other will be on New Year’s Day. The specific bowl games have not been determined, though the four current BCS bowls – Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta – are heavy favorites, along with the Chick-Fil-A and Cotton Bowls.

The BCS, which has been in place since 1998, matched only the top two teams in a championship game and has been the subject of much controversy.

The next step in the ongoing process will be choosing who will be on the selection committee that will ultimately choose the final four teams.