BCS Explained

The Bowl Championship Series, or BCS for short, is a selection system in NCAA Division I Football known as the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). In essence, the BCS is setup to select the best college football teams in the U.S. to have them compete in the BCS bowl games held at the end of the football season. The BCS holds five bowl games a season including one which is recognized as the BCS national championship game. Due to contractual obligations with the American Football Coaches Association, the winner of the BCS national title game is guaranteed at least a share of the national championship depending on the final vote of the Associated Press poll which gives out the other national championship share.

How It Works

The foundation of the BCS system is the BCS ranking system. The BCS rankings at the end of the season are extremely important in determining the ten teams that are invited to the BCS bowl games including the national championship game. The rankings are made by combining results from two human polls and computer rankings. Currently, the Harris Interactive College Football Poll and the USA Today/Coaches Poll are used by the BCS system. The computer rankings are an average of six computer polls which take into account a variety of team performance factors, though margin of victory has been considerably reduced in the system to eliminate some controversy. The combination of polls and computer rankings allow each component to be weighted in a fairly equal manner and thus gives more credence to human voting than previous versions of the BCS ranking system.

Who Gets In

So the end of the season has arrived and the final polls are in, now who goes to the BCS bowl games. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the top 10 teams in the BCS rankings. Why you may ask? It all has to do with BCS major conferences and a rather complicated set of selection rules. Without overwhelming you, I’ll try to summarize them here though they can be a bit convoluted. The easiest rule, and the one that makes the most sense, is that the top two teams in the BCS rankings automatically place for the BCS national championship. Next, the conference champions of the BCS conferences (ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10, and SEC), if they are not already playing for the national championship, automatically qualify for a BCS bowl game. Also, Notre Dame automatically qualifies for a BCS bowl if they finish in the top 8 in the BCS rankings. Finally, the highest ranked non-BCS conference champion will receive an automatic berth if they are ranked in the top 12 or in the top 16 and are higher than at least one BCS conference champion. A number of restriction rules also exist which attempt to limit the number of berths given to one conference in a year. Once all of the automatic qualifications are set, any remaining spots are filled by BCS-at-large teams which are teams ranked in the top 14 with at least nine wins. There are rules for expanding this selection pool if the options are limited, but they have yet to be used. A note should be made here that the BCS-at-large teams are selected by committees for each BCS bowl game which needs one. Thus, it is possible that a lower ranked team with better regional presence or money making potential could be selected over a fellow BCS-at-large contender. This is one of the many controversies surrounding the BCS system which will be detailed next.

So Much Anger

As you would expect when a ranking system is used, there is much disagreement with the BCS system. Early on, the BCS system dealt with controversy due to the fact that the computer poll made up half of the BCS rankings and left out a unanimous number one in the human polls from the BCS national title game. This controversy spurred most of the changes which caused the system used today to be adopted. Over the years, there has also been a lot of anger due to the occasional bypassing of a high ranked at-large team by the various committees because they were smaller schools or located in the wrong geographic areas for a given bowl. Currently, much of the BCS controversy surrounds the handling of undefeated non-BCS conference teams. This is due to the fact that it is very difficult in both the human and computer rankings for an undefeated non-BCS conference team to outrank a one loss major BCS conference team. There is very little room in the current system to correct this sort of bias or for either side of the argument to prove whether the bias is valid or not. Which leads to the most common subject surrounding the BCS today…

Playoffs!?!?

Opponents to the BCS have been looking fervently for alternatives to the current BCS system which would allow some manner of playoff. Any playoff system would make it so that a group of the top teams would be allowed to decide on the field who is the national champion. A number of playoff scenarios have been presented including the +1, which is effectively a four team playoff, as well as the 8 and 16 team playoffs. It is unlikely that anything larger than an 8 team playoff would occur due to the number of games required to settle such a tournament. Unlike basketball and March Madness, football games are relatively spread out and can’t be played in such a concentrated manner. Currently, the BCS has no plans to go to a playoff system and have denied the first major proposal to move in that direction. A number of reasons exist for this stance. Most importantly, the current major-BCS conferences are reluctant to give up their inherent advantage in the current system. Another major factor, which to many people may be arguably more important, is that the current BCS system produces a very large financial windfall for a number of the groups involved. Thus, there is reluctance to produce change which might disrupt that income stream.

A Look Ahead

It is unlikely, in the current climate, that the BCS will make any rapid changes to its system unless strong outside forces compel it to. While the system may be ultimately flawed, it is the system that all college football fans must deal with. One day, we may see a small playoff system and those desiring such a change can look forward with hope. But for any college football fan, at least the controversies mean that more attention is paid to college football and thus more games end up on your TV screen. Weigh in with your comments about the BCS system or a potential playoff in the comments below (Keep it clean!). And as always, enjoy the game!