{"id":452,"date":"2013-07-21T16:32:51","date_gmt":"2013-07-21T20:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flipthefield.com\/?page_id=452"},"modified":"2018-09-19T12:44:17","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T16:44:17","slug":"what-is-the-bcs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sqp.rng.temporary.site\/flipthefield.com\/what-is-the-bcs\/","title":{"rendered":"What was the BCS"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>BCS &#8211; Bowl Champion Series<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">According to the official BCS Website, the BCS is &#8220;a five-game showcase of college football. It is designed to ensure that the two top-rated teams in the country meet in the national championship game, and to create exciting and competitive match-ups among eight other highly regarded teams in four other bowl games.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Now, if you ask us and the majority of die hard college football fans, we will tell you the BCS (Bull Crap Series) is seriously messed up and based on personal opinions and computers which cannot possibly be able to accurately determine who the best teams are. We will tell you it is a flawed system and a playoff system similar to the one in the NFL, or even College Basketball, is needed. We will also tell you the BCS is about money, not about who the best team is in college football. Based on the uproar that occurred when Alabama played LSU for the 2011 National Championship, the BCS decided to implement a small playoff system beginning in the 2014 season. We will see how it turns out and if it truly fixes some of the problems with how the BCS operates. Without a playoff system it is hard to figure out who is the best.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">On the flip side, many think a true play-off system in college football is not practical due to the large number of teams and the difficult toll the game takes on a player&#8217;s body. It&#8217;s not like basketball or baseball where the body is fatigued but not &#8216;beaten&#8217;. You also have to remember that these &#8216;kids&#8217; are not getting paid either.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>How the BCS works<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This is the beginning of where this craziness happens. We&#8217;ll start with the rankings first. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The BCS ranks the teams for the last 8 weeks of the season. There are three components to the rankings and they all carry 1\/3 of the weight of the total score.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Harris Interactive Poll:\u00a0<\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Harris Interactive Poll is made up of former players, coaches, administrators, and current and former media who cast their votes for who they believe the top 25 teams are each week. It was designed to replace the AP poll and is designed to be a fair representation of FBS and Independent schools.\u00a0A team&#8217;s score in the Harris poll will be divided by 2,875, the maximum number of points any team can receive if all 115 voting members rank the same team as Number 1<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>The Coaches Poll:<\/strong> <span style=\"color: #000000;\">The USA Today Coaches Poll is comprised of 62 Head Coaches at FBS schools. A team&#8217;s score in the USA Today poll is divided by 1,475. This is the maximum number of points any team can receive if all 62 voting members rank the same team as Number 1. In both of these polls,\u00a0the voters fill out their own top 25 rankings ballot.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Computer rankings:<\/strong> <span style=\"color: #000000;\">There are 6 computer polls\u00a0managed by people, newspapers and the BCS itself that are\u00a0used to determine this third of the overall ranking. They are: Jeff Sagarin, Anderson &amp; Hester, Richard Billingsly, Colley Matrix, Kenneth Massey and Dr. Peter Wolfe.\u00a0The computer rankings percentage is calculated by first dropping the highest and lowest ranking for each team and then averaging the scores of the 4 remaining different computer rankings. That total is then divided by 100, the maximum possible points.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The percentage totals of the Harris Interactive Poll, USA Today Coaches Poll, and the computer rankings are then averaged. The teams\u2019 averages are ranked to produce the BCS Standings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Now is that crazy or what! And we didn&#8217;t even get into how some of the computer rankings work to quantify somewhat qualitative things like &#8216;strength of schedule&#8217;. Don&#8217;t get us started!<\/span><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!-- google_ad_client = \"ca-pub-1543367335140512\"; \/* Flip 336x280 *\/ google_ad_slot = \"9168122409\"; google_ad_width = 336; google_ad_height = 280; \/\/-->\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<h2>BCS Bowl Games:<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">There are 4 \u00a0BCS Bowl games: Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Sugar Bowl. The <strong>Rose Bowl<\/strong> is always played on New Year&#8217;s Day in Pasadena, CA. The teams are the Big Ten Champion vs. the Pac 12 Champion. The <strong>Fiesta Bowl\u00a0<\/strong>is played in Tempe, AZ and is between the Big 12 Champion and an at-large team. The <strong>Orange Bowl\u00a0<\/strong>is played on New Year&#8217;s Day in Miami, FL. It is between the ACC Champion and an at-large team. The <strong>Sugar Bowl,<\/strong> played on New Years Eve in New Orleans, hosts the SEC Champion and an at-large team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Then there is a 5th bowl game for\u00a0the Championship between whichever two teams are ranked #1 and #2 at the end of the season BCS rankings. This was implemented after the 2006 regular season. The 5th game rotates between the 4 sites listed above. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2>BCS\u00a0Bowl Selection Process:<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">OK, this is where it gets really crazy. Somehow, the 10 teams that are in these &#8216;best of the best&#8217; bowls must be selected. One might think that #1 plays #2 and #3 plays #4 and #5 plays #6, etc. but that person would be dead wrong!! There is a LOT of money at stake here along with a bit of bragging rights, nice trophies and a fun trip so this is really important to these teams!!<\/span><br \/>\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block; text-align: center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1543367335140512\" data-ad-slot=\"8559945710\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Here is how it is decided which 10 teams go to which BCS bowl games. First, we go through which teams <strong>automatically<\/strong> qualify to be in one of the bowls. Then there is what they call &#8216;at-large&#8217; bids to help fill any remaining teams in the 10 needed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Automatic Qualifiers in the BCS Bowl Games\u00a0&#8211; <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">1. The top two teams ranked by the BCS will play in the National Championship Game. That&#8217;s the obvious one. It really is just #1 vs\u00a0 #2 (well, #1 and #2 according to all those people and computers anyway).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> 2. The\u00a0\u00a0champions of the ACC,\u00a0American, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC are in a BCS bowl. That&#8217;s\u00a06 more possible teams so we could be up to\u00a08\u00a0of the 10 selections. Why &#8216;could be&#8217; instead of a definite &#8216;are&#8217;? Well, if the winner of one of those conferences is either #1 or #2, things get changed up a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">3.\u00a0The champion of the smaller conferences: Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Sun Belt Conference, or the Western Athletic Conference will earn an automatic berth in a BCS bowl game only if either:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> a)\u00a0The team is ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS Standings, or<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> b)\u00a0The \u00a0team is ranked in the top 16 of the final BCS Standings and is ranked\u00a0higher than a team in one of the &#8216;big&#8217; conference winners\u00a0mentioned in #2 above.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">However, only one of these teams can qualify. <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Well, sort of&#8230;.a second team could be considered for an &#8216;at-large&#8217; bid if they meet the same criteria in (a) or (b) above. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">4.\u00a0Notre Dame is automatically in one of these games\u00a0if they end up ranked 8 or better in the\u00a0final BCS Standings (We know this one ticks a lot of people off. Some people just think Notre Dame is special &#8211; maybe the geniuses that came up with the BCS are Catholic, who knows?). Part of this is because they are an Independent team with no conference to win.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">5.\u00a0After that, if there are still more wholes to fill in the 10 teams, they go through some more craziness about rankings and automatic qualifiers and at-large bids to fill them. It&#8217;s crazy. Not worth trying to explain in any form of English normal people want to understand.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>How the At-Large bid works in the BCS\u00a0&#8211;<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Seriously? If you think the automatic qualifiers was difficult to understand, this is even worse. Suffice it to say that if after all the steps to find\u00a010 automatic qualifiers did not result in 10 teams, then the bowls will select at-large teams. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">An at-large team is any Football Bowl Subdivision team that is bowl-eligible and:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The team won at least nine games, AND<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The team is ranked in the top 14<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">No more than two teams from the same conference may be selected unless two non-champions from the same conference are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the final BCS Standings. (This is how Alabama and LSU played for the title in 2011).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Still can&#8217;t make ten teams? Then they open it to those that are in the top 18 in the final rankings with a couple more ridiculous rules.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Even more crazy is if they can&#8217;t find what should be the top 10 teams in the country within the top 18 in the BCS poll that these guys thought up and think is so amazing, then they continue to look at the next 4 teams in the rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Somehow, in the end, they have accepted enough bribes or something to decide who is going to play in these 10 spots. After that, all the other bowls that are not the BCS bowls get to really get creative about who they have play in their bowl. Sometimes that is tradition. Sometimes that is location. Sometimes that is who will be fun to matchup against each other or whose fans travel better. In the end, it is all about <span style=\"color: #008000;\">MONEY!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h2>BCS Championship &#8211;<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Championship game is played between the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams by the BCS provided that each team is bowl eligible.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>BCS Future &#8211;<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Well, there is no future. In 2014 it was replaced with a 4 team playoff. The semi-final game will be played on either New Year&#8217;s Eve or New Year&#8217;s Day. There will be a Championship Monday that will be the first Monday in January that is at least 6 days after the playoff. The first Championship will be played on January 12, 2015. We can only hope that this is the beginning of a larger playoff system.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #eb2d69;\"><a title=\"College Football Conferences\" href=\"https:\/\/sqp.rng.temporary.site\/flipthefield.com\/college-football-conferences\/\"><span style=\"color: #eb2d69;\">Explanation of College Football Conferences<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #eb2d69;\"><a title=\"College Conferences and Teams List\" href=\"https:\/\/sqp.rng.temporary.site\/flipthefield.com\/college-conferences-and-teams-list\/\"><span style=\"color: #eb2d69;\">College Conferences and Teams List<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block; text-align: center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1543367335140512\" data-ad-slot=\"8559945710\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BCS &#8211; Bowl Champion Series According to the official BCS Website, the BCS is &#8220;a five-game showcase of college football. It is designed to ensure that the two top-rated teams in the country meet in the national championship game, and to create exciting and competitive match-ups among eight other highly regarded teams in four other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[292],"tags":[138,238,160],"class_list":["post-452","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-college","tag-bcs","tag-bowl-games","tag-playoff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sqp.rng.temporary.site\/flipthefield.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sqp.rng.temporary.site\/flipthefield.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sqp.rng.temporary.site\/flipthefield.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sqp.rng.temporary.site\/flipthefield.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sqp.rng.temporary.site\/flipthefield.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/sqp.rng.temporary.site\/flipthefield.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4535,"href":"https:\/\/sqp.rng.temporary.site\/flipthefield.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/452\/revisions\/4535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sqp.rng.temporary.site\/flipthefield.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sqp.rng.temporary.site\/flipthefield.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sqp.rng.temporary.site\/flipthefield.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}