Someday in a future more sane than today, the winners of all twelve FBS divisions will have play-offs to determine a true national champion college football team.
Until then, we humbly offer a completely, totally and purely objective poll which ranks teams on the basis of nothing other than wins and losses.
No subjective opinions, no quality of wins, no traditions, no weighted statistics...just wins and losses determining who's best.
Which, let's face it, is the way it should be.
What's the BCS?
The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) is a selection system designed to force a "national championship game" between the top-ranking teams (in the BCS rankings) in American college football's top division, the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS, formerly known as Division I-A).
This championship is intended as a surrogate for a playoff system since the NCAA does not formally determine a champion in this category. There has often been controversy as to which two teams should be able to play for the national championship and which teams should play in the four other BCS bowl games (Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, and Sugar Bowl).
from bcsfootball.org:
The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) is a five-game arrangement for post-season college football that is designed to match the two top-rated teams in a national championship game and to create exciting and competitive matchups between eight other highly regarded teams in four other games.
The bowl games participating are the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, FedEx Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, Allstate Sugar Bowl and the BCS National Championship Game which will be played each year at one of the bowl sites.
The BCS is managed by the commissioners of the 11 NCAA Division I-A conferences, the director of athletics at the University of Notre Dame, and representatives of the bowl organizations. The conferences are Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, Sun Belt, Pacific 10, Southeastern and Western Athletic.
The conference commissioners and the Notre Dame athletics director make decisions regarding all BCS issues, in consultation with an athletics directors advisory group and subject to the approval of a presidential oversight committee whose members represent all 117 Division 1-A programs.
The BCS conferences have a contract with Fox Sports to televise the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar Bowls through 2010 and the National Championship Games through 2009. ABC has an agreement to continue to televise the 2010 National Championship Game and the Rose Bowl through 2014.
Schedule of Games, January 2009
January 1 - FedEx Orange Bowl
January 1 - Rose Bowl Presented by Citi
January 2 - Allstate Sugar Bowl
January 5 - Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
January 8 - FedEx BCS National Championship Game (Miami)
Automatic qualification
The top two teams in the final BCS Standings will play in the national championship game.
- The champions of the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern Conferences automatically qualify for BCS games each year.
- One team from among the champions of Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Sun Belt Conference, or the Western Athletic Conference automatically qualify for a BCS game if either: A. Such team is ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS Standings, or, B. Such team is ranked in the top 16 of the final BCS Standings and its ranking in the final BCS Standings is higher than that of a champion of a conference that has an annual automatic berth in one of the BCS bowls.
- Notre Dame will automatically qualify for a BCS bowl if it is in the top eight of the final BCS Standings.
- If any of the 10 slots remain open after application of provisions 1 through 4, and an at-large team from a conference with an annual automatic berth for its champion is ranked No. 3 in the final BCS Standings, that team shall become an automatic qualifier.
- If any of the 10 slots remain open after application of provisions 1 through 5, and if Step No. 5 has not been applied and an at-large team from a conference with an annual automatic berth for its champion is ranked No. 4 in the final BCS Standings, that team shall become an automatic qualifier.
- If any slots remain unfilled after the placement of all teams qualifying for an automatic berth, then the bowls shall choose their participants from the "pool of eligible teams" (see below.)
Pool of Eligible Teams
If berths are available after the automatic qualifiers have been identified, then the bowls shall select at-large participants from the "pool of eligible teams," which shall include any Division I-A team that is bowl-eligible and meets the following requirements:
A. Has won at least nine regular-season games, not including exempted games, and
B. Is among the top 14 teams in the final BCS Standings
Why does BCS suck? (click)