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College Football’s National Championship
Explanation of the BCS Bowls
The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) is a collective of five bowl games held in January. The Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl continue long traditions of holding important college football match ups, and a fifth BCS National Championship Game is held between the two teams the BCS rankings elect as top in the country.
Every year the championship game rotates between four traditional bowl sites in a “double hosting” format — one of the sites hosting its traditional bowl and the National Championship Game. The sites are; the Orange Bowl, held in Florida; the Rose Bowl, held in Pasadena, California; the Fiesta Bowl, held in Glendale, Arizona, and the Sugar Bowl, normally held in New Orleans.
During the 2010-11 season, the University of Phoenix Stadium, in Glendale, Arizona will hold both the traditional Fiesta Bowl and the 2011 BCS National Championship Game.
With five BCS bowl games scheduled, ten spots are available for teams wishing to compete in BCS Bowls. As in prior years, the champions of the ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10 and SEC shall receive automatic bids to one BCS bowl.
In addition one champion from the mid-major conferences (not of the original six BCS conferences) will qualify for a BCS bowl bid if they are ranked in the top 12 in the final BCS standings, released in early December, or if a champion from a mid-major conference is ranked higher than any BCS conference champion ranked among the top 16.
The mid major conferences are: Conference USA (C-USA), the Mountain West Conference (MWC), the Sun Belt Conference, the Mid-American Conference (MAC), and the Western Athletic Conferences (WAC).
Although ten spots are opened for BCS bowls, no conference will send more than two teams to any of the five BCS bowl games.
Notre Dame, an independent team not associated with any conference shall receive an automatic BCS bowl bid if they are to finish in the top eight in the final BCS standings.
Six teams receive automatic bids as conference champions, leaving four “at-large” bids for the BCS bowls to fill. Teams will be eligible to be selected if they finish the season ranked in the top 14 in the final BCS standings and have at least nine victories.
A team which is ranked third in the final BCS standings, but did not win its own conference will automatically receive one of the remaining at-large bids. If the third place team is a conference champion, the fourth place team will be rewarded with a bid if they are not a conference champion.
All four original BCS bowls hold contracts with certain BCS conferences to choose that conference’s champion. If those contracts cannot be honored, and the bowl loses its first pick to the National Championship Game, that bowl may receive first choice when picking from among the other BCS bowl eligible teams. The contracts are as follows:
Orange Bowl- Atlantic Coast Conference
Rose Bowl- Big 10 vs. Pac 10
Fiesta Bowl- Big 12
Sugar Bowl- Southeastern Conference
This year’s schedule is as follows:
The 2011 Bowl Championship Series
The 2010 Bowl Championship Series (Last Season)
Winners in RED
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Rose Bowl
Pasadena, California. January 1st |
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Ohio State Buckeyes 26 |
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vs.
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Oregon Ducks 17 |
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| BCS Know How Rose Bowl Recap Comment: We’ve known this matchup for a while, and this may be the best game on the slate of BCS bowl games when all is said and done. Oregon comes into the game as one of the nation’s hottest teams after clinching the Pac-10’s BCS bid in their “Civil War” against Oregon State. Ohio State hasn’t played in quite some time, but the Buckeyes are used to taking long breaks between their final game and their bowl game due to the early end to the Big 10 schedule. |
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Sugar Bowl
New Orleans, Louisiana. January 1st |
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Florida Gators 51 |
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vs.
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Cincinnati Bearcats 24 |
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| BCS Know How’s Sugar Bowl Recap Comment: All season the goal for Florida was to repeat as National Champions. The Gators will not get a chance to do that after losing in the SEC Championship Game, but they still receive a bid to the Sugar Bowl to face off against the Cincinnati Bearcats. The Bearcats come off a last minute comeback victory against Pittsburgh which secured the Big East crown for Cincinnati. This will be the Bearcats second straight BCS bowl game. |
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Fiesta Bowl
Glendale, Arizona. January 4th |
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Boise State Broncos 17 |
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vs.
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TCU Horned Frogs 10 |
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| BCS Know How’s Fiesta Bowl Recap Comment: For the first time in the history of the BCS, TCU is headed to a BCS bowl game. Also a first, two non-BCS schools have received BCS bowl bids. The two teams ran through their seasons without much competition, completing undefeated seasons and winning their conferences. This might as well be considered as the non-BCS National Title game and is sure to be a shootout. |
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Orange Bowl
Miami, Florida. January 5th |
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Iowa Hawkeyes 24 |
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vs.
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Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 14 |
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| BCS Know How’s Orange Bowl Recap Comment: The ACC Champion Yellow Jackets and the Big 10 corunner-up Iowa Hawkeyes meet in Florida to decide the Orange Bowl champ. Georgia Tech needed to hold of CJ Spiller and the Clemson Tigers to get the ACC’s automatic BCS bowl bid as the conference champion. Iowa gets one of the BCS’s four at-large bid mainly on the strength of their early season success, which led to the Hawkeyes best season in a few years and a BCS bowl bid for the first time since 2003. |
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2009 Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game
Pasadena, California. January 7th |
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Alabama Crimson Tide 37 |
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vs.
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Texas Longhorns 21 |
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| BCS Know How’s National Championship Game Recap Comment: The nation’s two best teams according to the BCS are the Tide and Longhorns, and the two will meet in Pasadena to figure out just who is the best in the nation. The Tide clinched their spot here with a victory over Florida in the SEC Championship Game, while Texas needed a field goal with all zeros on the clock in the Big 12 Championship Game to secure their spot here. Both teams have struggled at times during the season, but did just enough to finish the season undefeated and make their way to the National Title Game. |
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The National Championship Trophy and the image of the crystal football are trademarks of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA). The AFCA is the copyright owner of the National Championship Trophy.
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2009-11-22
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2009-12-06
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2010-07-13
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