College football fans witnessed a true national championship game last year because the Bowl Championship Series was in place.
The BCS matched up two undefeated teams, No. 1 Miami and No. 2 Ohio State, for the 2003 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, fulfilling its purpose to provide college football a match-up between the top two teams.
The system was put in place to try to answer all the questions about who the best team in the country was
said Rick Walls, director of operations and public relations for the National Football Foundation.
Prior to the 1998 regular season the Rose Bowl, Nokia Sugar Bowl, FedEx Orange Bowl and Tostitos Fiesta Bowl joined with the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pacific-10 and Southeast Conferences and independent Notre Dame to form the BCS. The BCS stemmed from the Bowl Alliance, which had been in place for three years prior and was preceded by the Bowl Coalition for three years.
There had been calls for a playoff system so the six conferences got together to stage a national championship game each year and keep the bowl system going as it has been working said John Paquette, associate commissioner for communications for the Big East, the conference responsible for overseeing the BCS this year.
The champions of the six BCS conferences are automatic qualifiers for the BCS games, and two at-large teams are selected to fill the remaining spots. The national championship game rotates each year among the four bowls.
BCS standings determine which teams will be No. 1 and 2 for the right to play for the national championship. The National Football Foundation releases the standings, which factor in four different components, each week beginning Oct. 20. Each component - Walls said. It is not as complicated as it seems.
Paquette said the ranking system has become more effective as the BCS has evolved to better match up the best two teams.
In the past with conference tie-ins for bowl games it was impossible for No. 1 to play No. 2
Paquette said. For example
the Big Ten champion would go to the Rose Bowl and the Southeast champion would go to the Sugar Bowl. If those teams were No. 1 and 2
they were not able to play each other.
Now, if a bowl's regional tie-in is one of the top two teams in the final BCS standings, that team moves to the championship game and the bowl selects a replacement team from a pool of eligible teams. The pool consists of any Division I-A team that is ranked in the Top 12 in the final BCS standings and has achieved nine wins during the regular season. Notre Dame is guaranteed a spot if it finishes in the top six of the final BCS standings.
The BCS will continue to be televised by ABC Sports through the 2006 bowl season. After that, the conferences involved will re-evaluate the system and possibly extend the contract.
(The BCS) has in some ways brought more attention to the sport
Mark Mandel, spokesman for ABC Sports, said. It's been one of the great sports success stories for its purpose to put the two best teams together
especially with last year's championship game between Ohio State and Miami.
17
Archives
