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BCS National Championship Game
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The BCS National Championship Game or BCS title game is the final bowl game of the annual Bowl Championship Series and is intended by Series organizers to determine the NCAA Division I-A national football championship. The game was first played at the conclusion of the 1998 College Football season after the Big Ten and Pac 10 conferences and the Rose Bowl Game joined the members of the former "Bowl Alliance" to form the Bowl Championship Series. The Bowl Alliance and its predecessor, the Bowl Coalition, featured championship games from 1992 through 1997.
Since the formation of the Bowl Championship Series, there have been several controversies regarding the formula used for selecting the participating teams. Most notably, following the 2003 season, the BCS ranking system excluded Associated Press No. 1 University of Southern California from the BCS Championship Game (The Nokia Sugar Bowl). The following season, in 2004, undefeated Auburn University and University of Utah teams were left out of the BCS Championship Game (The FedEx Orange Bowl). See Bowl Championship (main article) for a further discussion of these controversies.
The USA Today Coaches Poll is contractually obligated to name the winner of this game as the National Champion in its final poll of the season. Thus, the winner of the game is awarded the AFCA National Championship Trophy in a postgame ceremony. The winner also is automatically awarded the National Football Foundation's MacArthur Bowl national championship trophy.
The National Championship Game for 2006 was sponsored by Tostitos. It was played at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on January 8 2007 and broadcast by FOX television network. The game featured the #1 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes and the #2 ranked Florida Gators. Florida won by the final score of 41-14. Allstate sponsored the 2008 game between the #2 LSU Tigers and the #1 Ohio State Buckeyes. LSU won 38-24 to become the only team to hold two BCS National Championship titles. Additionally, LSU is the only team with two losses to play in a BCS National Championship game.
FutureBeginning with the 2006 season, the National Championship Game became a separate event from the host bowl played at the same site as the host on the Monday following New Year's Day. The game's location will rotate between the sites of the BCS bowls; note that the date of the game occurs in the calendar year following the corresponding NCAA football season:
- University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona in 2007, 2011, 2015, etc.
- The Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2008, 2012, 2016, etc.
- Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida in 2009, 2013, 2017, etc.
- The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California in 2010, 2014, 2018, etc.
The title sponsor of the BCS National Championship Game each year will be the same as that of the bowl game in that year's host location. Thus, the 2007 game was the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game, after the title sponsor of the Fiesta Bowl. Barring any changes in corporate sponsors, the 2009 game will bear the FedEx brand, and the 2010 game the Citi brand, with 2011 returning to the Tostitos brand.
Game results
| Season | Date | Winner | Loser | Bowl Game | Site | MVP |
|---|
| 1998 | January 4 1999 | 1 Tennessee (SEC) | 23 | 2 Florida State (ACC) | 16 | 1999 Fiesta Bowl | Sun Devil Stadium
Tempe, Arizona | Peerless Price, Dwayne Goodrich | | 1999 | January 4 2000 | 1 Florida State (ACC) | 46 | 2 Virginia Tech (Big East) | 29 | 2000 Sugar Bowl | Louisiana Superdome
New Orleans, Louisiana | Peter Warrick | | 2000 | January 3 2001 | 1 Oklahoma (Big 12) | 13 | 2 Florida State (ACC) | 2 | 2001 Orange Bowl | Pro Player Stadium
Miami Gardens, Florida | Torrance Marshall | | 2001 | January 3 2002 | 1 Miami (Florida) (Big East) | 37 | 2 Nebraska (Big 12) | 14 | 2002 Rose Bowl | Rose Bowl
Pasadena, California | Ken Dorsey, Andre Johnson | | 2002 | January 3 2003 | 2 Ohio State (Big Ten) | 31† | 1 Miami (Florida) (Big East) | 24 | 2003 Fiesta Bowl | Sun Devil Stadium
Tempe, Arizona | Craig Krenzel, Mike Doss | | 2003 | January 4 2004 | 2 LSU (SEC) | 21 | 1 Oklahoma (Big 12) | 14 | 2004 Sugar Bowl | Louisiana Superdome
New Orleans, Louisiana | Justin Vincent | | 2004 | January 4 2005 | 1 USC (Pac 10) | 55 | 2 Oklahoma (Big 12) | 19 | 2005 Orange Bowl | Pro Player Stadium
Miami Gardens, Florida | Matt Leinart | | 2005 | January 4 2006 | 2 Texas (Big 12) | 41 | 1 USC (Pac 10) | 38 | 2006 Rose Bowl | Rose Bowl
Pasadena, California | Vince Young (offense);
Michael Huff (defense) | | 2006 | January 8 2007 | 2 Florida (SEC) | 41 | 1 Ohio State (Big Ten) | 14 | 2007 BCS National Championship Game | University of Phoenix Stadium
Glendale, Arizona | Chris Leak (offense);
Derrick Harvey (defense) | | 2007 | January 7 2008 | 2 LSU (SEC) | 38 | 1 Ohio State (Big Ten) | 24 | 2008 BCS National Championship Game | Louisiana Superdome
New Orleans, Louisiana | Matt Flynn (offense);
Ricky Jean-Francois (defense) | | 2008 | January 8 2009 | | | | | 2009 BCS National Championship Game | Dolphin Stadium
Miami Gardens, Florida | | | 2009 | January 8 2010 | | | | | 2010 BCS Championship Game | Rose Bowl
Pasadena, California | |
†Double overtime
Records by conference
Records by team
CriticismMany critics of the Bowl Championship Series favor a larger championship tournament with eight to sixteen teams, similar to that administered by the NCAA for its Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), Division II and Division III football championships. Others favor adopting the incremental step of adding a single post-bowl championship game between the winners of two BCS games among the top four ranked teams in the BCS standings, the so-called "plus one" option.The SEC and ACC conferences have been pushing for some type of playoff system as of late.
The primary virtue of increasing the number of teams in the tournament would be to allow for more head-to-head comparisons of teams from different conferences. Currently, it is difficult for pollsters to compare top teams from different conferences because such teams play on average only four regular-season games outside of their conferences, many of which are against teams from non-BCS conferences that have no chance of competing for the national title. The primary vices of expansion are threefold. First, an expanded tournament would diminish the relevance of traditional bowl games, a concern that is emphasized by football traditionalists and by major college university presidents and coaches. Second, an expanded tournament would reward teams who chose to play weak regular-season schedules, especially if some tournament slots were automatically awarded to BCS conference winners, thereby reducing the incentive of BCS teams to schedule non-conference games against strong opponents. The current two-team system, by contrast, rewards teams for playing difficult schedules, as evidenced by the fact that, at the end of the 2007 season, a team with one loss (Kansas) and a team with no losses (Hawaii) were passed over for the national championship game in favor of two-loss LSU, because LSU had clearly played a more difficult regular-season schedule. (LSU went on to win the national championship game, defeating one-loss Ohio State 38-24). Third, expansion would reduce the importance of regular-season victories. Along these lines, critics of an expanded tournament often point to the NFL where teams that have already clinched playoff berths will often bench their starting players in the final few games of the regular season because a loss will not prevent them from making the playoffs. This never happens in the BCS system, under which a team never goes into a regular-season game knowing that, even if it loses, its slot in the two-team tournament is nonetheless assured.
TelevisionBeginning in 2007, and continuing until 2010, all games in the BCS will be televised by Fox, with the exception of those games played at the Rose Bowl (which will be televised by ABC). This means Fox has the rights to the 2009 BCS Championship Game, then ABC will have the rights to the 2010 National Championship Game (as it will be played at the Rose Bowl).
See also
External links- - Official website of the Bowl Championship Series.
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