BCS Expanding to 5 Games

[Guest bullistic930]

From: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2420529

BCS expanding to five games

Associated Press

PHOENIX -- For eight years, the Bowl Championship Series has created as much confusion as clarity.

And one year after it worked perfectly, with two unbeaten teams squaring off in a classic championship game, the BCS is changing again. And its top official wonders if fans will understand why.

"Just the fundamental format, I think, needs explanation," Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive said as the BCS' annual meetings opened here Monday.

The BCS is expanding to five games next year, with a new stand-alone national title game being added to the existing four bowls -- the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar and Orange.

Like the old format, the top two teams in the final BCS standings will play for the national title. Unlike the old format, they won't play in an existing bowl game. The title game will rotate among the four BCS sites beginning with the Fiesta in Glendale, Ariz., next January.

"I think one of the things that we need to be doing over the next several months is explaining the double-hosting model, which is in effect the national championship game rotating through the four bowls," Slive said. "I think there might be some confusion as to how the teams get to the [title] game."

It will help when the new game has a name and a title sponsor. That could be announced as early as Tuesday.

"We will [have a name] before we leave here," said Slive, who is starting his first of two years as BCS coordinator.

For the first time in three years the BCS meetings are generating little buzz.

Two years ago, the BCS responded to growing criticism by simplifying its standings formula, emphasizing the polls over the computers. Last season the formula stayed the same, but a new poll was created to replace The Associated Press Top 25. The AP poll was replaced by the Harris Interactive poll, which included former college football players, coaches and administrators, plus some media members.

There's little call for change this year, partly because the 2005 season played out perfectly from the BCS' perspective. Only two teams finished the regular season undefeated -- Southern California and Texas -- and they played for the BCS title in the Rose Bowl, with the Longhorns upsetting the defending champion Trojans.

The BCS' biggest change was adopted two years ago, when the fifth game was added in response to pressure to improve access for non-BCS conferences.

With more slots available, commissioners Monday discussed adding more at-large teams to the BCS-eligible pool. Under the present system, at-large teams must win nine games and be ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS standings. Commissioners are considering allowing lower-ranked at-large teams into the pool.

"The reason it came up, we raised it because you've added 25 percent more slots by going from eight to 10," Slive said. "Should we examine going to more than 12 [in the standings] as the cutoff for eligibility for at-large? We just started some dialogue today. We're going to continue to talk about that.

"I'm hoping that we'll come to some decision here," Slive said. "We may not. It's an important topic and we may want to talk about it more."

Any change would have to be approved by the BCS' presidential oversight committee.

[Joe]

[USFootball]

OK...so 5 games make sense, but what I dont understand is why would they have the 5th game somewhere where a BCS bowl is already being played? They should have 5 bowls w/ 5 locations and then rotate the NC...But lets hope this fixes a lot of problems w the BCS...

[Joe]

The 5th game is played at the same location for a number of reasons

1) So the Rose Bowl can have their traditional Big 10 v. Pac 10 game every year and not lose it in Championship years.

2) Orlando had not committed to fixing the Citrus Bowl, they were going to throw the 5th game there, but the city hadn't committed to the funding yet. The other spot Atlanta, had trouble with the agreement. Dallas had some problem between BCS officials.

3) Now that non Big 6 schools get a spot they want to guarentee attendance is good if they can. (Although the 2004 Fiesta Bowll brought 45,000 Utah fans and a lil over 10,000 Pitt fans) Their fear is that if a school like Tulsa makes it the city can still make their money (they won't do this w/ the Rose Bowl) if they bring 10,000 - 15,000 fans to the game.

[turkeysoup]

Why not leave the 4 bowl games as they originally were and play the NC game at the RayJay.

[Jake_Ryan]

This will do nothing to fix the system.  What happens if the year plays out like last year with only one unbeaten remaining after the 4 bowl games?  Would Texas have to play USC again to win the National Title?

[turkeysoup]

This will do nothing to fix the system.  What happens if the year plays out like last year with only one unbeaten remaining after the 4 bowl games?  Would Texas have to play USC again to win the National Title?

NO!  The way I read it, nothing changes except that 2 more teams get to play in a BCS bowl game.  The NC game remains the same just that it will be played as game that rotates among the bowl sites but won't take the place of any of the bowl games.

[Apis Bull]

NO!  The way I read it, nothing changes except that 2 more teams get to play in a BCS bowl game.  The NC game remains the same just that it will be played as game that rotates among the bowl sites but won't take the place of any of the bowl games.

That's exactly how it's going to be.

[E.T.]

2 Words ...

Play Off

8)

[Guest]

Here is how it would have worked last year:

TITLE GAME:

USC vs Texas

Rose Bowl:

Penn State vs Oregon

Orange Bowl:

FSU vs Notre Dame

Sugar Bowl:

LSU vs Ohio State/Miami

Fiesta Bowl:

WVU vs Miami/Ohio State

TCU ended up at #14 in the BCS, so they were not eligible.

Georgia or Auburn could have been selected over Miami for the Fiesta Bowl.