College Football Who Is Really #1

A detailed Summary of College Football Who Is Really #1

At the conclusion of each college football season, the Bowl Alliance selects the nation's top football teams to play in select bowls. The way in which the Bowl Alliance selects who plays in the bowls, and because college football does not have a championship series like college basketball, a number one vs. number two match-up for the national championship is never guaranteed. With this setup, many fans agree that a true national champion can not always be crowned.

In the past, because of the Bowl Alliance, two national champions have been crowned at the conclusion of a single season. Just recently, at the conclusion of the 1997 season, Michigan and Nebraska were forced to share the national championship. Even though a championship had been shared several times before, there was much controversy over this one. Michigan fans thought that Michigan should be the sole possessor of the crown, and Husker fans thought the same for Nebraska. To avoid more co-champions in the future, and to guarantee a match-up between the top two teams in the nation each year, a new system was setup prior to the 1998 season. This new system setup by ABC Sports and the NCAA is called the Bowl Championship Series or BCS

The second component of the formula is also an average. There are eight major computers that rank each team. The computers are called Richard Billinglsey, Dunkel Index, Kenneth Massey, NY Times, David Rothman, Jeff Sagarin, Scripps-Howard and Seattle Times. The highest of the eight rankings is then dropped and the seven remaining rankings are averaged. If a team receives three twos, two three, two fours, and a five, the five would be dropped and the remaining seven are averaged, and the team is awarded 2.86 points (20/7 = 2.86) as the second component in the formula.

Jack Arute, an ABC Sports and college football announcer, recently wrote, "What's nice about the BCS is...the rankings are doing what their supposed to do. Right now, it simply serves as a tip-sheet for determining who might play who for the national championship to help us out before the all-important final rankings come out on Dec. 5." With the implementation of the Bowl Championship Series, there will no longer be co-national champions or a questionable single national champion. The reason being the top two teams in the nation will always face

The way the system works is somewhat complicated but very effective. Points are awarded for a combination of poll rankings, computer averages, strength of schedule, and losses, and then all plugged into the BCS formula. All the points are added together and ranked from least to greatest. The average of the rankings in the As

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Category: Miscellaneous