The BCS is the inscrutable , controversial system that attempts to watch the best college football team in the country using a mashup of opinion polls and figurer ranking . Here ’s how it really works .
Under the leading of executive conductor Bill Hancock , the Bowl Championship Series has reinvent how college football game champions are crowned .
Eighteen days ago , Jeff Anderson and Chris Hester were just two roommates at the University of Washington , frustrated with their darling Huskies always being disrespect in college - football poll rankings .
“ Back then , team were rewarded for playing soft schedules and move up by attrition , ” Anderson says . “ There was also a lot of East Coast diagonal . ”
So the two buddies began crunching numbers in Excel to rank teams on a more objective , numerocentric foundation . They started reconcile their picks to media around the country , and their data was so reliable that they struck a deal with the Seattle Times in 1994 to syndicate their picks .
Four years later , Anderson and Hester were come near by then - SEC commissioner Roy Kramer to become one of an single radical of numerical - ranking providers , for which they ’d receive an “ honorarium ” for their workplace .
Little did Anderson and Hester suspect that they were cementing their legacy as ground members of the most hated college - football game entity in the United States . For more than a decade now , the openhanded controversy in NCAA football game has n’t been concussions , the influence of shadowy agents or the exposure of illegal recruiting practices , although every one of those infringement sure exist .
No , it ’s theBowl Championship Series , the much - maligned and cryptical compendium ofcomputer rankings and opinion pollsthat decide college football ’s yr - ending bowl - game pairings , including the internal championship game . This year ’s selections are scheduled to be announced Sunday , and a new cycle of criticisms is sure to guggle up as it does every class .
Almost since its inception in 1998 , the BCS has been the sport ’s favorite beating male child , an omnipresent ideal for those claiming a traditional playoff system would heal the game ’s ills . critic claim the BCS single out against smaller schools that overlook lesser opponents , that a shoal like Texas Christian will get screwed out of a shot at a national championship because computers say ( as of Thursday , at least ) that Oregon and Auburn are most deserving of playing each other in Glendale , Arizona , come Jan. 10 , 2011 .
But the BCS is n’t what you think .
There is no towering corporate office . Its notorious computers are n’t located in some guard , all - white room in Langley , Virginia . In fact , harmonise to executive theater director Bill Hancock , for all its control over big - prison term college football , it ’s unvoiced to even call the BCS a governing consistency . “ Some people think we ’re this malefic corporation in rush of college football , ” he say , “ but that ’s just not the sheath . ”
Despite its ethnical impact , the BCS is tiny . It staffs just three the great unwashed : Hancock and two part - time post assistants . And it ’s headquartered out of the director ’s suburban Kansas City family . “ I do n’t give out my address , ” he enunciate with a laugh , “ because I do n’t desire someone egg my house . ”
In fact , everything about college football today is done on a noble-minded scale . jillion of dollars are pumped into local community , thanks to drift bands of fanatic , and books likeRammer Jammer Yellow Hammerhave taught us that college football might as well be religion in some sphere . All of which , BCS critics say , is why the organization should be scrapped and supersede with a traditional bracketed playoff .
That would be a ultra divergence for the athletics , but then again , the BCS itself was a extremist departure when it was ratified in 1998 by the 11 conferences that qualify for annual bowl game . For all the mystery that surrounds how the BCS run , the organization still answers to every one of those 11 conferences , which serve “ manage thing on the ground , ” harmonize to Hancock .
At its core , the BCS is a wide-eyed system . Two - third base is human public opinion : one - third from theUSA Today Top 25 Coaches Polland one - third from theHarris Interactive College Football Poll .
The remaining one - third is an average of six self-governing “ computer rankings . ” Hancock likens their proprietary formulas to that of the Coke recipe , but he emphasizes that the BCS “ requires them to evidence us how they work , ” and “ independent audit ” system evaluation are conducted .
And while mathematical rankings forego the BCS by decades , the new process prognosticate to be the first system combining consensus impression with numerical analytic thinking into a single ranking . “ I conceive it ’s double-dyed , ” Anderson says . “ Two - thirds art , one - third science . ”
For all the power wielded by BCS computers this time of the year , the machines themselves are just sinful . In fact , the rankings are processed by separately owned desktop PCs and laptop computer around the country .
Wes Colley runs his calculationsin a database from his home in Alabama . Jeff Sagarin works from his homein southern Indiana , usingFortran , a once popular programme used by honest-to-goodness - school mathematicians .
Peter Wolfecompiles his rankingsbaked in C++ . Anderson and Hester manipulation acomplex spreadsheet and an ordinary HP laptopin Southern California . “ When we started , it take Excel half an time of day to calculate the rankings , ” Anderson suppose . “ Now it takes a fraction of second . ”
‘ There ’s no question in my mind that computing machine rankings have opened doors for smaller teams . It ’s only a matter of clock time until one of these teams get ahead a championship . ’
Once all six providers compose their rankings , they ’re submitted to Big East associate commissioner John Paquette , who double as the BCS ’ “ communication guru . ” ranking are also ship to executive film director Hancock , theNational Football Foundationand four of Paquette ’s similitude from other league . “ All of us compile the information independently , ” Paquette tells Wired.com . “ Then we equate the outcome to verify we all agree , after which the National Football Foundation write out a news release . ”
It may seem cold-blooded and calculated as equate to the sure-enough system , where mind coach-and-four and journalists would each rank the top 25 teams and then an arcane , decades - old organisation of group discussion coupling would locate team in certain bowl .
But the BCS computers actually wish underdogs more than voter . Why ? citizenry think . People run favorite . mass take into account the history and reputation of a schoolhouse .
“ You know Alabama ’s a good football game squad before the season starts , ” Sagarin says . In his view , the BCS is fairer , because it only estimate teams on what they ’ve done in the current time of year : “ information processing system do n’t handle about name . ”
Anderson jibe , direct to the Air Force Academy ’s 1971 Sugar Bowl – play squad , the last squad not from a large conference to play in a major bowl before the BCS . “ There ’s no question in my nous that figurer ranking have opened doors for little team , ” he order , “ Six minor - market team have been invited to BCS bowls in the last six years . It ’s only a matter of clip until one of these teams wins a title . ”
hoi polloi often leave why the BCS was founded : to pair the two top - ranked team in a year - end pipe bowl game that duplicate as a definitive championship . Before the BCS , the top - two nationally ranked AP team met only eight times in 56 time of year . But since the birth of the BCS , No . 1 has recreate No . 2 12 years in a quarrel by BCS standings , and nine times according to the AP Poll .
It ’s not perfect , but it ’s bang-up if you care high - visibility match - ups while keeping the bowl organization intact . “ For what it was project to do , ” Colley tells Wired.com , “ the BCS does a really good job . ”
Not only that , it zigs while playoff system zag . “ How often do the top - two team meet in college basketball ? ” Anderson ask . “ find out Butler play in the home championship against Duke was exciting , but it was n’t the best team go at it . ”
Those involved with the BCS from day to day are keenly cognisant of that dilemma . To their collective ears , when critic say they do n’t wish the BCS , what they ’re really saying is they do n’t like the reluctance of the NCAA to conduct a formal championship . “ A playoff does n’t magically show the two best team , ” Anderson says . “ That make college football game uniquely exciting . Why should all fun be decided in the same means ? Where ’s the fun in that ? ”
Still , the BCS has had several notable trip-up when matching its eight rest bowl game spots .
• In 2003 , an 11 - 1 Georgia team ( run by school principal coach Mark Richt , right)easily handed9 - 3 Florida State its fourth red ink of the time of year .
• A twelvemonth later on , undefeated Utah move to 12 - 0 bycrushing the University of Pittsburghby 28 points , or else of playing undefeated SEC maven Auburn .
• Last season , two undefeated Davidsplayed each other – Boise State and Texas Christian – rather than combat behemoth in disjoined underdog games .
“ No one wants to see a weak Big East champion go up against an undefeated MWC squad , ” says Gregory Cox , college football director and senior author atTheFootballExpert.com . “ It proves nothing . ”
“ It ’s always decease to be controversial , we know that , ” Hancock concedes . “ I feel their pain in the ass . ”
Despite its imperfections , the BCS has made college football game a lot of money , as spectator watch twelvemonth - end bowling ball gamesin book numbers . In fact , under the BCS , college football has become the most popular televised mutation in America , 2nd only to the NFL . As Hancock plainly says , “ College football game is not broken . ”
Of course , criticism of college football polls was around long before the creation of the BCS . In 1905 , an undefeated Yale squad wasvoted“National Champion ” in Outing cartridge holder byCaspar Whitney , a well-thought-of journalist and inventor of the NCAA ’s All - American Team . Midwesterners could n’t have been happy with Whitney ’s selection , however , as the University of Chicago also went 10 - 0 in the Big Ten . Alas , it made little conflict , as Chicago was still widely recognized as the best team in the rural area .
Helping to fuel the contestation , the AP started “ selecting ” its own “ national champion ” in 1936 by polling the judgment of hundreds of contributing mutant author . To this day , the AP Poll is recognize by the NCAA as the “ longest continuous chooser ” of college football ’s national championship .
But it ultimately was the AP Poll ’s slowness ( and/or the NCAA ’s involuntariness to formally top a champ while countenance “ picker ” do it for them ) that led to the creation of the BCS in 1998 , the ultimate “ next undecomposed affair , ” ratify and agreed to by all 11 Division I conferences .
So in a circular way , the NCAA does sanction the BCS . Except that it does n’t , which only further instance how dissentious the BCS is , even among the NCAA ’s own members . Big market place teams love it , except when they get leapfrogged by lowly squad . diminished teams , like Boise State and TCU , detest it , except when they ’re in chase of it .
‘ It is ludicrous to call the winner of this game the “ interior wiz , ” because the method of determining who receive into the game does n’t calculate for more than two teams deserve a seat at the board . ’
“ BCS ranking are determined by bet strange computer formulas , wacky Harris poll elector and coaches who do not watch most other teams act as , ” Cox says . “ It is cockeyed to call the winner of this secret plan the ‘ interior champion ’ because the method acting of determining who get into the secret plan does n’t report for more than two team deserve a derriere at the tabular array . ”
“ I think they ’ve got it perfect , ” Anderson says . “ This is college football game ’s gilt old age . rooter hump the BCS as much as they love bashing it . logic gate attending and television receiver paygrade are sky high . If it comes to a playoff , I surmise people will finally look back and realize what a not bad metre this was . ”
Sagarin would enjoy to see a playoff , if only for the bangle . “ backing format are like methamphetamine hydrochloride cream , ” he says . “ I like all ice cream . In that sense , I would n’t mind sampling a 16 - team playoff , even though I still really wish the current smell . ”
But as much as the BCS has reduce the controversies of the past , it has also kept more - merit team from play for at least a share of the championship . What ’s more , results are compiled by the have conference ( read : the ones who get an automatonlike spot in the BCS ) , whereas the have - nots have no say in the “ accuracy ” of weekly rankings . And the mathematics behind it all is still “ weighted ” by human opinion , even if it ’s calculate in an objective way .
And that ’s really what will prove most frustrative to TCU fans as the BCS announces its pairings Sunday evening . Oregon and Auburn will belike be selected for the National Championship , leaving the much - small Texas school enquire what more it could have done to earn a spot for the ultimate honor in college football game .
Maybe one day , a new , better system will solve these matters without all the brouhaha . But what would such a system reckon like , and how and who would operate it , free from title of preconception yet still under the auspices of the all - powerless NCAA ?
Those , of course of instruction , are the billion - dollar doubt .
Blake Snow is a freelance journalist live in Utah . His published workplace can be find atblakesnow.com .
Image quotation : Computer pictures courtesy Jeff Anderson and Wes Colley
Georgia : Dave Martin / AP
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