NEW YORK — The Bowl Championship Series is close to an agreement with ESPN to televise college football's championship game and biggest bowls — a deal that would throw up a huge barrier to any playoff system for at least six years.

The title game and BCS bowls, save the Rose, are currently on broadcast network Fox and would be going to cable for the first time since the system was implemented in 1998.

Fox has broadcast the games since 2007, but a spokesman for the network said it was not going to match ESPN's offer.

A vocal contingent of college football fans — including President-elect Barack Obama — has clamored for a playoff to determine its champion. They'll all probably have to wait until January 2014, when this deal would end.