This is the beginning of what will turn into some sort of college football blog on NCAABBS. The main focal points will be analyzing the college football games that could impact the BCS picture, and the overall general bowl picture. We should get a different sort of set up later on, but for now we'll just post the articles on the message boards.


2007-2008 BCS BOWL INFORMATION

-BCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (#1 vs #2 in the BCS Rankings)

-ROSE BOWL (Pac Ten Champion vs Big Ten Champion)

-ORANGE BOWL (ACC Champion vs #1 At-Large)

-FIESTA BOWL (Big Twelve Champion vs #2 At-Large)

-SUGAR BOWL (SEC Champion vs #3 At-Large)


TEAMS AUTOMATICALLY QUALIFY FOR THE BCS IF:

-They finish in the BCS top 2

-Win the Big East, ACC, SEC, Big Twelve, Big Ten or Pac Ten Championship. Teams in these leagues also automatically qualify if they finish #3 or #4 or in the BCS Standings, but fail to win the conference championship

-The Big East Champion must be selected as an at-large team by one of the bowls because they are not automatically tied into one.

-One team from the Sun Belt, WAC, MAC, Conference USA or Mountain West Conferences will automatically qualify if they win the conference, win nine games, and finish in the BCS top 12.

If two or more teams from those conferences win their league and finish in the BCS top 12, then the highest ranked team gets the automatic at-large bid.

A team from those conferences will also automatically earn an at-large bid if they finish in the BCS top 16 AND finish ranked higher than any champion from the Big Twelve, Big Ten, Big East, SEC, ACC or Pac Ten.

-Notre Dame automatically qualifies for an at-large if they win 9 games and finish in the BCS top 8.


TEAMS ARE ELIGIBLE FOR THE BCS, BUT NOT AUTOMATIC QUALIFIERS IF THEY WIN NINE GAMES AND FINISH IN THE BCS TOP 12.


-If the Rose, Orange, Fiesta or Sugar Bowl lose their tie-in to the BCS Championship game, then they get to select an at-large team to replace them prior to the Orange Bowl selecting their at-large team. They cannot select a conference champion that is tied into another bowl, but can select any other team that is BCS eligible.


CALCULATING THE BCS

-Total number of points in the coaches poll devided by 1500

plus

-Total number of points in the Harris Poll devided by 2850

plus

-the average computer ranking (see below)

There are six computer polls. They are Jeff Anderson-Chris Hester, Richard Billingsley, Wes Colley, Ken Massey, Jeff Sagarin and Peter Wolf. Each team is given a certain number of points based on where they rank in each poll. The #1 team gets 25 points; the #2 team gets 24 points, etc. The highest and lowest ranking is thrown out, which means each team ends up being measured in four of the six polls. The total number of points they get is devided by 100.

-The totals from Coaches’ Poll, Harris Poll and Computer Polls are then added together and devided by 3. There is really no reason for doing this other than it looks better on television. The best BCS score a team can have is 1.00. This would mean all the voters in the Coaches’ Poll and Harris Poll voted them #1, and they finished #1 in all of the computers. Actually, the score would be 3.00, but since the powers that be want it to look more like a percentage, that score is devided by 3 and we get 1.00.


A FEW NOTES ABOUT THE COMPUTERS:

-ANDERSON-HESTER rates div1a teams only. Strength of schedule is a factor, but time and location of games are not. It gives bonuses to teams who beat highly ranked teams.

-BILLINGSLEY rates div1a teams only. Factors in the end of the season more than the beginning. Game location is not strongly considered.

-COLLEY rates div1a teams only and only considers games against other div1a teams. For example, Louisville’s game against Murray State will not be considered. Western Kentucky will be a part of the poll this year even though they are not full fledged div1a. Western KY is in their transition period, will be div1a next year, and Colley considers those teams.

-MASSEY rates every college football team (NCAA div1a, div1aa, div1aaa, div2, div3 and NAIA). He does not consider home location or time.

-SAGARIN rates all div1a, div1aa and div1aaa teams. Game location is considered. I believe schedule strength is also a factor.

-WOLFE, like Massey, rates every college football team. Game location is a factor, as is schedule strength. The less likely a team is to win, the more credit they get for doing so.