By Dennis Dodd
SportsLine Senior Writer

In a Dallas conference room last month, a former University of Oklahoma wrestler laid out a comprehensive plan for a college football playoff to the NCAA Football Issues Committee.

If that sounds weird, it gets better. The same former wrestler then dropped another bomb. His company had interest in taking over the NCAA basketball tournament.

Tom Jernstedt, an NCAA senior vice president, couldn't resist raising his hand to ask a question.

"When," Jernstedt asked, "did you plan approaching the NCAA on this?"

Jim Wheeler didn't know and still doesn't know Jernstedt, one of the NCAA's major power brokers. But that's going to change soon. Wheeler, the wrestler, is better known these days as vice president/college athletics for International Sports and Leisure, a Swiss firm that markets big events.

The World Cup? ISL.

Olympics? ISL.

The world basketball championships? ISL.

College football and basketball are next. Maybe. Wheeler has quietly been making the rounds talking to athletic directors and commissioners with his pitch. The fact that he has not met Jernstedt shows the breadth, width and swiftness of his nationwide tour.

"I'm a little bit in a strange position," Wheeler said by phone from his Norwalk, Conn. office. "Everybody's really interested in how we would go about our process and proposal. If I let it out, I would lose the competitive advantage. I've got to break through the old relationships with something special."

THERE ARE FEW SPECIFICS but we do know Wheeler is pitching a 16-team football playoff. The first two rounds would be played on campus sites which leaves the major bowls (Sugar, Rose, Orange and Fiesta) to play host to the semifinals and championship game in early to mid-January.

Wheeler has guaranteed a gross payout of $300 million from the playoff. Last year's 22 bowls netted only about $80-$90 million for the 44 participating schools, Wheeler said.

"Basically the major teams are out there making $1.5 million to $2 million (after expenses) in the bowls," Wheeler said. "That will triple."

You can see why he has the ears of the sports' movers and shakers.

"I think it's great," said Nebraska athletic director Bill Byrne. "You know me, I'm a playoff guy."

The details on the basketball tournament are a bit more sketchy. The NCAA's television contract with CBS is up for bid in 2002. In the last round of negotiations, CBS paid $1.7 billion. There were some rumblings that the NCAA could have gotten more but what's $50 million or so between friends?

If the NCAA hires them, the ISL would become the association's marketing managers. With new players on the horizon like Fox and Disney (ABC) the rights fees could go way up. If the last deal was worth $1.7 billion, considering the popularity of the tournament, what's the next contract worth? $2 billion, $3 billion?

"That's why people were wondering," Wheeler said, "If there wasn't an open bid (last time), did you maximize it? ... I think you'll see a lot of people (bidders) in there."

The NCAA might endorse ISL for the same reason the tournament has succeeded to this point. It makes more money for the NCAA than any other event. Profits account for a large chunk of the NCAA budget. Maximizing those profits should be field goal No. 1.

There are dark clouds gathering on the horizon for the NCAA and its members. Schools have found themselves handcuffed by Title IX concerns. If the money isn't there to add women's sports, athletic directors frequently cut men's sports. That's not fair.

The mostly costly lawsuit in NCAA history ended last week with it owing plaintiffs $54.5 million in the celebrated restricted earnings case. Restraint of trade suits against the NCAA have been spreading. It might take only a couple of more unfavorable court rules for the NCAA to really have money problems.

MORE MONEY WOULD HELP ALL concerned. That's why a college football playoff is inevitable. ISL is merely laying the foundation. It already has a collective marketing program with the Big Ten.

Started in 1974, ISL has branched out worldwide as a marketing agent for leagues and events.

"It was started out of necessity," said Wheeler, who says only that he is in his early 30s. "Twenty, thirty years ago these governing bodies were struggling a little bit for revenue. There was a lot of catch as catch can with television, sponsoring and ticketing."

The World Cup has long been the most watched sporting event but it wasn't maximizing its profit. Think of the NCAA Tournament -- arguably the biggest sporting event in this country -- being run as a conglomerate. Licensing, marketing, tickets, everything, coming out of ISL.

Wheeler, then, is a look at college sports in the next millenium. His company wouldn't take over a college football playoff or the basketball tournament but it would run them under one umbrella.

"I'm in the background," he said. "I don't manufacture shoes or own TV stations or theme parks. I put together a program that makes sense for the property, not for the viewers."

It starts to make sense when you consider that both the BCS and CBS contracts expire in 2002. A college football playoff could be a reality by the middle of the next decade if the BCS agreement isn't renewed after the 2002 Rose Bowl.

The so-called minor bowls would be supported and marketed as a kind of "football NIT". Not much at stake but a wonderful experience. In reality, that's what we've got now. The Bowl Championship Series is a one-game playoff. The minor bowls have long been second-class citizens-and survived.

College presidents are against a playoff for the some old, tired reasons. It would cut into class time and send the wrong academic message. That's hypocritical and the presidents have known it for a long time.

If ISL gets its way, will the Sooners have an automatic Tournament bid?(AP)

Division I-AA and Division II already stage 16-team playoffs and seem to survive. So do the 64 teams who play in the NCAA Tournament. Even in basketball, the Final Four teams are busy for three weeks during March.

Wheeler admits his ideas are a long way from becoming reality. Right now, the economy is good. Sports marketing as well as sports in general are still spiking. But that could all change.

Right now, Wheeler has credibility with ADs because he attended a school with a major-college program. Never mind that he only wrestled a couple of years, the guy is strong in another way. If ISL gets the NCAA Tournament Wheeler's first order of business is obvious.

"Oklahoma is always going to get an automatic bid," Wheeler said.