ESPN College Football

When I was a kid, the evening news was always dominated by Cold War coverage. And every night it felt like nothing new was reported and those recycled reports were accompanied by fresh video of gray-haired men in suits walking out of one conference room door and then into another, sometimes pausing to wave at the cameras.

In other words, it felt exactly like what we've seen out of the conference commissioners meetings for the last year, er, decade. And it was certainly what we experienced this week during the latest round of meetings in Chicago, which culminated with the announcement that the group had come to a consensus and was finally ready to endorse a four-team playoff model.

Wednesday marked the finish of the fourth meeting of the commissioners since the BCS title game on Jan. 9. Between then and Wednesday night's "we all agree on this" announcement, our newsfeeds and Twitter timelines have been jammed with whatever filler seemed appropriate at the time, the most popular being how the suits paired up during lunch breaks.

Most of that stuffing was legit, though it often became lost in speculation, off-the-hip commentary and misquoted quotes that were never actually quotes to begin with.

But in the gaps between actual news there were myths that inevitably arose. And before we all move on to next week's next round of meetings in Washington, it's time to stick a pin in those post-BCS balloons.

1. Everyone in the room always believed everything they said publicly would actually happen.

Not a chance. And this goes for everyone from the true power brokers -- SEC commissioner Mike Slive and Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany -- to the guys from conferences that were lucky if they were given a folding chair to sit in the back of the room.

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