Bowl Championship Series

The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a system used in American college football. It helped decide the best teams and set up important games after the regular season. The BCS worked from 1998 until 2013.

The BCS chose eight or ten top teams to play in special bowl games. This included a national championship game. The two best teams would play each other in this game. The winner was named the national champion. The BCS was created to have one clear champion.

The BCS also decided which teams would play in four famous bowl games: the Rose Bowl Game, Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Orange Bowl. Teams came from six big conferences and some independent schools. In 2014, the BCS was replaced by the College Football Playoff. This changed how the national champion is decided.

History leading to the creation and dissolution of the BCS

The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision does not have an official tournament to decide its champion. Instead, it has special games called bowl games.

The bowl games began in 1902 with the first East–West game in Pasadena, California, held on New Year's Day with the Tournament of Roses parade. This game matched a top team from the west coast against one from east of the Mississippi River. The first game had the University of Michigan Wolverines beat Stanford 49–0. The game was renamed the Rose Bowl in the 1920s when it moved to the Rose Bowl stadium.

By the 1940s, college conferences often sent their best teams to specific bowls. In 1947, the Big Ten Conference and the Pacific Coast Conference, a predecessor of today’s Pac-12 Conference, agreed to send their champions to the Rose Bowl each year. This sometimes meant the two best teams did not play each other, causing different polls to name different teams as champions.

To fix this, the Bowl Coalition was created in 1992 to try to match the top two teams in a championship game. However, this did not include the Big Ten and Pac-10 champions, who had to play in the Rose Bowl. The Bowl Coalition became the Bowl Alliance in 1995, still excluding the Rose Bowl teams.

The Bowl Championship Series began in 1998 after talks allowed the Rose Bowl to release its teams for a championship game if needed. The BCS aimed to make sure the top two teams met in a national championship game. However, it faced criticism for not treating teams from some conferences fairly. After many complaints, the BCS was replaced by the College Football Playoff in 2014.

Succession by College Football Playoff

Main article: College Football Playoff

The College Football Playoff replaced the BCS in the 2014 season. It has four teams play in two games called semifinals. The winners go to the College Football Championship Game. Each year, a new city hosts the championship game. Cities bid to host it, like they do for the Super Bowl or the Final Four. The first game was at AT&T Stadium in 2015. This system will continue at least until the 2023–2024 season. ESPN shows all the games. Unlike the BCS, this system does not use polls or computer rankings. Instead, 13 people choose and rank the teams for the playoff games and four big bowl games. They use a method like the one used to pick teams for the NCAA basketball tournament selection process.

Bowl games

In the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) format, four regular bowl games and the National Championship Game were called "BCS bowl games." The four bowl games were the Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, California, the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, and the Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens, Florida.

For the first eight years, the championship game moved among these four bowls. Starting in 2007, the National Championship Game became its own event. The University of Oklahoma and Ohio State University were the only schools to play in all five BCS Bowls.

Television

At first, ABC showed all four BCS games. Later, Fox Sports took over most of these games, but ABC kept the Rose Bowl. After 2010, ESPN showed all BCS games until the system ended in 2014.

Selection of teams

Certain rules decided which teams played in the BCS bowl games. The top two teams automatically played in the National Championship Game. Champions from special conferences like the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10/Pac-12, and SEC also got automatic spots. Independent teams such as Notre Dame could get a spot if they ranked high enough. Other teams could be chosen based on their rankings and wins.

Rankings

The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a special way to rank college football teams before the College Football Playoff started. It used both human votes and computer calculations to find the top teams.

From 1998 to 2003, the BCS looked at a few things to rank teams: votes from two big polls, numbers from three computer systems, how hard a team’s schedule was, and how many games the team lost. Later, more computer systems were added, and the rules changed to be fairer.

By 2004, the system changed again after some disagreements. It used two human polls and several computer rankings, giving more importance to the human votes. This helped make sure the top-ranked team could play in the big championship game. These changes continued until 2013 when the BCS was replaced by a new system with a small playoff.

History and schedule

The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a way to decide the best team in college football from 1998 to 2013. It created special games called "bowl games" where top teams would play. The best two teams would meet in a national championship game to decide the national champion.

The BCS used polls and computer numbers to rank teams. It would pick the top teams to play in big games, with the top two meeting in the championship. The championship game moved around to different bowl games each year until it became its own game from 2006 to 2013.

Appearances

The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) made big games for the best college football teams. Many teams and groups played in these games for many years.

• Denotes BCS National Championship Game before the 2006 season
  Win(s)/Loss(es) vacated

• *Ohio State had a perfect season, but could not play in a bowl game because of rules.

Win(s)/Loss(es) vacated

USC's victory in the 2005 Orange Bowl was vacated
USC's loss in the 2006 Rose Bowl was vacated
Ohio State's victory in the 2011 Sugar Bowl was vacated
Notre Dame’s loss in the 2013 BCS National Championship Game was vacated

† Both teams in the 2012 BCS National Championship Game were from the SEC
USC's victory in the 2005 Orange Bowl was vacated

Controversies

Main article: BCS controversies

Criticism

The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) had many criticisms. People said it was unfair how it chose the top two teams for the national championship game. The BCS used both human votes and computer calculations to rank teams. Some teams with no losses still didn’t get to play in the championship. Fans wanted a playoff system instead. Even President Barack Obama supported a playoff.

Antitrust lawsuits

Some people thought the BCS treated teams unfairly. After Utah beat Alabama in a bowl game in 2009, Utah’s attorney general checked if the BCS broke any laws. There were talks about possible lawsuits.

Support

Some people supported the BCS. They said it made teams work harder because one loss could cost them the championship. They also said the BCS made sure the two best teams played each other for the title.

BCS Buster

The term "BCS Buster" was used for teams not from a top conference (except Notre Dame) that made it into a BCS bowl game. These teams were sometimes called non-AQ teams. Three teams were BCS Busters twice: the University of Utah, Boise State University, and Texas Christian University. By 2013, two of these teams joined conferences with an automatic spot in a BCS Bowl (Utah to the Pac-12 Conference and Texas Christian to the Big 12 Conference).

Non-AQ teams did well in BCS Bowls. They lost only two games to AQ teams (Hawaii lost the 2008 Sugar Bowl to the University of Georgia and Northern Illinois lost the 2013 Orange Bowl to Florida State University) but won four. Boise State beat TCU 17–10 in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl, the only BCS Bowl with two non-AQ teams.

It was very hard for non-AQ teams to become BCS Busters because the rules favored AQ conference teams. Only eight teams from five schools—Utah, TCU, Boise State, Hawaii, and Northern Illinois—managed to become BCS Busters. No non-AQ team ever made it to the BCS Championship.

The University of Utah was the first BCS Buster in 2004. They played in the 2005 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl and beat Pittsburgh Panthers. Utah made another BCS appearance in 2008, beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.

In 2006, Boise State became the second BCS Buster, beating the Oklahoma Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl.

In 2007, Hawaii had an undefeated regular season but lost to the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl.

The 2009 season had two non-AQ teams in BCS bowls: TCU and Boise State. Boise State beat TCU in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl.

In 2010, TCU was the only non-AQ team in a BCS bowl, beating Wisconsin in the 2011 Rose Bowl.

In 2012, Northern Illinois became the first BCS Buster with a loss during the regular season. They played in the 2013 Orange Bowl but lost to Florida State Seminoles.

Locations of all AQ conference teams

A map shows where every university that was part of the AQ Conferences was in 2013.

Former logos

The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) used different logos over the years. From 1998 to 2005, one logo was used, and a version with the ABC logo appeared on TV. From 2006 to 2009, a new logo was introduced, and a version with the Fox logo was shown on television.