• BCS2008

2008 Bowl Championship Series analysis

Which teams were available for BCS games?

A list of the teams that were available for BCS games, and where they ended up.

Which teams get automatic BCS bids?

1. The 6 BCS conference schools get automatic bids (ACC, SEC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10, Big East).
2. The highest-ranked non-BCS conference champion gets an automatic bid if it finishes in the top 12 (Utah from the Mountain West).

How do the matchups get set?

1. Top 2 teams go to National Championship Game.
2. Other teams with automatic bids are slotted based on pre-existing bowl ties.
   • Rose Bowl -- Pac 10 vs. Big 10
   • Sugar Bowl -- SEC
   • Fiesta Bowl -- Big 12
   • Orange Bowl -- ACC

3. Remaining teams are selected in order by the bowls themselves from the pool of eligible teams.

What are the initial matchups?

The Fiesta Bowl "loses" Oklahoma and the Sugar Bowl "loses" Florida to the National Championship Game.

Based on the rules above, the matchups become:

What are the at-large bids?

This leaves 5 slots that need to be filled, and we already know that Cincinatti and Utah must be selected at some point.

1. Fiesta Bowl picks first and selects Texas (as expected, since they are inclined to take the best-available Big 12 team).
2. Sugar Bowl picks second and selects Alabama (as expected, since they are inclined to take the best-available SEC team).
3. Orange Bowl picks third and selects Cincinatti (Big East champ vs. ACC champ is fairly typical Orange Bowl matchup).
4. Fiesta Bowl picks fourth and selects Ohio State (this is a somewhat controversial choice).
5. Sugar Bowl picks fifth and must select Utah (they have no choice).

Who got left out?

Texas Tech and Boise State were both passed over for at large bids in favor of Ohio State, and both can make legitimate arguments that they should have been selected. However, the rules for BCS selection meant that Texas Tech never had a chance anyway (see below).

Consider:

• Texas Tech and Boise State both finished ranked above Ohio State in the final BCS standings, but were still passed over.
• Texas Tech finished in a 3-way tie for its conference, and missed out on the Big 12 championship game on tiebreakers.
• Boise State upset Oklahoma in spectacular fashion in its last BCS bowl game.
• Boise State finished the season undefeated, Texas Tech with one loss, and Ohio State with two losses.
• Ohio State has a recent history of terrible showings in BCS games.

Also:

• Just like last year, someone from the Big 12 had to get left out. The Big 12 had 3 teams in the top 8, but BCS rules only allow 2 teams per conference in BCS games. Last year, this rule hurt Missouri and this year, it hurts Texas Tech.

• Conference championship games continue to really mess things up. In this case, the Big 12 tiebreaker rules that left Texas out of the championship game (despite beating Oklahoma on a neutral field) cost Texas a shot at the national championship.
• Automatic bids to the winners of certain conferences are a bit unfair. Virginia Tech gets an automatic bid as winners of the ACC despite being ranked 19th overall. A playoff system is needed which gives every conference winner a chance, or else there should be no automatic bids.
• The location of the National Championship game should not be set until after the teams are chosen. It is unfair that Florida is basically going to get a home game in Miami for the National Championship.

Resources

• BCS selection algorithm

CategorySports