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IN-DEPTH: The Bowl Championship Series

© Chuck Bednar

Prior to the start of the 1998 season, the NCAA announced a controversial new plan to determine an undisputed national champion. As football fans across the country know, this new program became known as the Bowl Championship Series.

Its goal was simple -- the BCS was to match the top two college football teams in a national title game. But the BCS wound up confusing and angering many fans across the country. It became one of the hottest stories of the 1998 season. This week, Suite 101 NCAA College Football editor Chuck Bednar takes an in-depth look at the BCS.

How does the BCS work? -- As with the NCAA's previous system, the formula involved a blend of the Associated Press media poll and the USA Today-ESPN coaches' poll. So what was different about Kramer's plan? A complex new "power system" would be incorporated to measure strength of schedule, strength of opponents' schedule, and computer polls instead of just wins and losses.

The origin of the Bowl Championship Series dated back to 1996, when the ABC television network signed a $525 million dollar contract for the broadcast rights to the Fiesta, Sugar, Orange and Rose Bowls for the next seven years. The National Championship game would rotate between the four bowls, starting with the Fiesta Bowl for the 1998-99 season.

The two teams playing in the BCS title game would be determined through a complex point-system based on the Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN Coaches polls, three sets of computer ratings (the Jeff Sagarin rankings, and the Seattle Times and the New York Times polls), strength-of-schedule and won-loss percentage.

The polls would be calculated based on the average of the ranking of each team in the AP and Coaches poll. The rankings of each team would be added and divided by two. The second component will consist of three computer rankings which are published in major media outlets. An average of these rankings would be utilized to calculate the points in this component. Third would be strength of schedule, which would be calculated by determining the cumulative won/lost records of the team's opponents and the cumulative won/lost records of the team's opponents' opponents. Lastly, the BCS standings would evaluate the team's won/lost record. Each loss during the season will represent one point in this component.

All four components would then be added together for a total rating, and the team with the lowest point total would rank first in the Bowl Championship Series Standings. The top two teams would meet in the National Championship game.