The NFL, NBA, and NCAA basketball playoff systems are all the standard bracket, elimination process. But NCAA football has a different system to determine the league champion: the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).
With no playoff system, a team’s regular season success determines their standing in the BCS rankings and, by extension, their chances at a BCS bowl.
“The BCS allows for preserving the significance of the regular season, which is the most meaningful in sports. It also maintains the bowl system to the benefit of dozens of universities each year,” says the BCS website.
The five BCS bowl games are the Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and the National Championship Game. There are other minor bowl games outside of the BCS as well for teams who do not qualify.
The winners of the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference), Big 10 Conference, Big 12 Conference, Pac-12 Conference, Big East Conference, and SEC (Southeastern Conference) receive automatic berths in the Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, or Sugar Bowl.
Some argue this automatic qualification (AQ) system is unfair to minor conferences (the Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference, Sun Belt Conference, and Western Athletic Conference), because only one team from one of those conferences can enter, in the event that the team is ranked in the top 12 or is ranked higher than an AQ team (but still in the top 16).
“The BCS still caters to the schools from the power conferences and is only interested in the ‘outsider’ schools when forced to be interested,” wrote Yahoo sportswriter Pat Forde in a viewpoint on 2011-2012’s BCS matchups.
Due to the complexities and confusions of the BCS system, many have wondered why the NCAA does not switch to a traditional playoff bracket. According to the BCS website, this is because the current system “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 matchups among eight other highly regarded teams in four other bowl games.”
However, critics claim that the system is so corrupted that it does not accomplish that goal.
“The players and coaches deserve to settle things on the field in a playoff – which they’d prefer no matter the baseless poll numbers the BCS trumps. If not, then at least use something other an imbecilic charade of a system,” wrote Yahoo Sports college football expert Dan Wetzel in a viewpoint about the corruption of the BCS system.
Though the basic playoff bracket may be simpler, it could eliminate the core BCS idea that the top two regular season teams play each other in the National Championship. For this reason, different ideas have been suggested to alter the BCS system.
According to ESPN, one idea, among several others, the BCS committee (comprised of the six major conference heads and the Notre Dame athletic director) is considering is the BCS controlling only the National Championship game, with the other five bowls no longer depending on rank or conference.
“I think what we’re doing is a natural progression,” said an unidentified conference commissioner in an ESPN article. “I think this is one of those milestones to start tinkering with [the BCS] again.”
For this season, though, the current BCS system will be still used to determine the National Champion. The Rose Bowl is January 2 between Oregon and Wisconsin. The Fiesta Bowl is also January 2 with Oklahoma State playing Stanford. The Michigan vs. Virginia Tech Sugar Bowl is January 3 and the Clemson vs. West Virginia Orange Bowl is January 4. Finally, the National Championship game will be a rematch between SEC Louisiana State University (LSU) and Alabama on January 9.