BCS 101: Bowl Matchups

Although the initial standings won't be released for a few weeks, it’s time to get in the groove of things.

If you don’t already know, this is complicated stuff. Apparently, the BCS ranks it’s team by taking the total number of wins of a given team, dividing by the total number of times the replay coaches have gotten it wrong, squaring that number, adding Joe Paterno’s age to that number, taking the natural log of that number, subtracting from that number the average number of beers sold at each game, adding the constant four to that number, multiplying that number by pi, dividing that number by the number of times Steve Spurrier throws his visor down, and finally adding the number of wins Duke got last season, usually zero. Ok, so not really. But, it is complicated.

Last year saw major changes to the BCS. An official championship game, pitting No. 1 against No. 2 was added, meaning a total of five—formerly four—BCS Bowl Games. This year’s championship game will be held in the Superdome.

The Rose Bowl puts the Big 10 champ against the Pac-10 champ; the Fiesta Bowl gets the Big 12 champ; the Orange Bowl gets the ACC champ; the Sugar Bowl gets the SEC champ; and the BCS Championship Game gets No. 1 and No. 2 whether it be any of these champs. If either one or both No. 1 and No. 2 is one of these champs, then the bowl that loses its champ to the championship game gets the first “at-large” selection. If neither No. 1 nor No. 2 is either of these champs this season, then the at-large selection process order is: Orange, Fiesta, and then Sugar. Automatic bids do come into play when certain teams meet certain criteria, and there’s even a whole clause exclusively for Notre Dame but it doesn’t look like they’ll need it this season. All of this takes shape on Selection Sunday in early December.

Confused, yet? Me too. Here’s a breakdown.

01.01.08—Rose Bowl: Big Ten Champ versus Pac 10 Champ
01.01.08—Sugar Bowl: SEC Champ versus at-large
01.02.08—Fiesta Bowl: Big 12 Champ versus at-large
01.03.08—Orange Bowl: ACC Champ versus at-large
01.07.08—BCS National Championship: No. 1 versus No. 2

— R. Cooper