How many bcs teams are there

What about the others? Well, all conferences had an opportunity to earn automatic qualifications during a four-year evaluation during the seasons. The above mentioned were the five that met the criteria. The champion team from each AQ-conference will automatically earn a trip to one of the five BCS bowl games -- at least until , when their contract ends. The AQ conferences have contracts with bowl organizers and T. The biasness of the BCS system creates an enormous challenge for any team in the seven non-AQ conferences to reach a championship game.

These standings are an intricate portion of the BCS. Each computer ranking uses different algorithms in its formula. Out of the six computer rankings, the highest and lowest rankings for each team are dropped and then divided by the remaining total by the maximum points.

The average of all three parts totals is than taken to produce the BCS standings. Even if Boise State and TCU go undefeated this season there is no absolute guarantee that either will go to the national championship if Auburn and Oregon go undefeated. Or even if Alabama bounces back Why? People complain that these teams don't have the right or have't earned the right to be ranked in the top five. In reality there is not much these teams can do about who they play.

Minneapolis , Minnesota. Augustana College — Illinois. Rock Island , Illinois. Augustana University — South Dakota. Sioux Falls , South Dakota. Aurora University. Aurora , Illinois. Austin College. Sherman , Texas. Austin Peay State University. Clarksville , Tennessee. Averett University. Danville , Virginia. Avila University. Kansas City , Missouri. Baker University. Baldwin City , Kansas.

Baldwin Wallace University. Berea , Ohio. Ball State University. Muncie , Indiana. Barton College. Wilson , North Carolina. Bates College. Lewiston , Maine. Baylor University. Waco , Texas. Becker College. Belhaven University. Jackson , Mississippi. Beloit College. Beloit , Wisconsin. Bemidji State University. Bemidji , Minnesota. Benedict College. Benedictine College. Atchison , Kansas. Benedictine University. Lisle , Illinois. Bentley University.

Waltham , Massachusetts. Berry College. Mount Berry , Georgia. Bethany College — Kansas. Lindsborg , Kansas. Bethany College — West Virginia. Bethany , West Virginia. Bethel College — Kansas. North Newton , Kansas. Bethel University — Minnesota. Saint Paul , Minnesota. Bethel University — Tennessee. McKenzie , Tennessee. Bethune-Cookman University. Daytona Beach , Florida. Birmingham-Southern College. Birmingham , Alabama.

Black Hills State University. Spearfish , South Dakota. Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. Bloomsburg , Pennsylvania. Bluefield College. Bluefield , Virginia. Bluefield State College. Bluefield , West Virginia. Bluffton University. Bluffton , Ohio. Boise State University. Boise , Idaho.

Boston College. Chestnut Hill , Massachusetts. Bowdoin College. Brunswick , Maine. Bowie State University. Bowie , Maryland. Bowling Green State University. Bowling Green , Ohio. Brevard College. Brevard , North Carolina. Briar Cliff University. Sioux City , Iowa. Bridgewater College. Bridgewater , Virginia. Bridgewater State University.

Bridgewater , Massachusetts. Brigham Young University. Provo , Utah. Brown University. Providence , Rhode Island. Bryant University. Smithfield , Rhode Island. Bucknell University. Lewisburg , Pennsylvania. Buena Vista University. Storm Lake , Iowa. Butler Community College. El Dorado , Kansas. Butler University. Indianapolis , Indiana. Butte College. Oroville , California. California Lutheran University. Thousand Oaks , California.

San Luis Obispo , California. California State University — Fresno. Fresno , California. California State University — Sacramento. Sacramento , California. California University of Pennsylvania. California , Pennsylvania. Campbell University.

Buies Creek , North Carolina. Campbellsville University. Campbellsville , Kentucky. Capital University. Columbus , Ohio. Carleton College. Northfield , Minnesota. Carnegie Mellon University. Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania.

Carroll College. Helena , Montana. Carroll University. Waukesha , Wisconsin. Carson-Newman University. Jefferson City , Tennessee. Carthage College. Kenosha , Wisconsin. Case Western Reserve University. Cleveland , Ohio. Castleton University. Castleton , Vermont. Catawba College. Salisbury , North Carolina. Catholic University of America. Washington , District Of Columbia.

Central College. Pella , Iowa. Central Connecticut State University. New Britain , Connecticut. Central Methodist University. Fayette , Missouri. Central Michigan University. Mount Pleasant , Michigan. Central State University. Wilberforce , Ohio. Central Washington University. Ellensburg , Washington. Centre College. Danville , Kentucky. Chadron State College. Chadron , Nebraska. Chapman University. Orange , California. Charleston Southern University. Charleston , South Carolina. Chowan University.

Murfreesboro , North Carolina. Christopher Newport University. Newport News , Virginia. Cisco College. Cisco , Texas. Citadel Military College of South Carolina. Citrus College. Glendora , California. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges. Claremont , California. Clarion University of Pennsylvania. Clarion , Pennsylvania.

Clark Atlanta University. Atlanta , Georgia. Clarke University. Dubuque , Iowa. Clemson University. Clemson , South Carolina. Coahoma Community College. Clarksdale , Mississippi. Coastal Carolina University. Conway , South Carolina. Coe College. Cedar Rapids , Iowa. Colby College. Waterville , Maine. Colgate University. Hamilton , New York. College of DuPage. Glen Ellyn , Illinois.

College of the Canyons. Santa Clarita , California. College of the Holy Cross. College of the Redwoods. Eureka , California. College of Wooster. Wooster , Ohio. Colorado Mesa University. Grand Junction , Colorado.

Colorado School of Mines. Golden , Colorado. Colorado State University. Fort Collins , Colorado. Colorado State University — Pueblo. Pueblo , Colorado. Columbia University. New York , New York. Concord University. Athens , West Virginia. Concordia College — Minnesota. Moorhead , Minnesota. Concordia University — Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor , Michigan. Concordia University — Chicago. River Forest , Illinois. Concordia University — Nebraska. Seward , Nebraska. Concordia University Wisconsin.

Mequon , Wisconsin. Concordia University, St. Paul — Minnesota. Copiah-Lincoln Community College. Wesson , Mississippi. Cornell College. Mount Vernon , Iowa. Cornell University. Ithaca , New York. Crown College. Saint Bonifacius , Minnesota.

Culver-Stockton College. Canton , Missouri. Cumberland University. Lebanon , Tennessee. Curry College. Milton , Massachusetts. Dakota State University. Madison , South Dakota. Dakota Wesleyan University. Mitchell , South Dakota. Dartmouth College. Hanover , New Hampshire. Davenport University. Grand Rapids , Michigan. Davidson College. Davidson , North Carolina.

Dean College. Franklin , Massachusetts. Defiance College. Defiance , Ohio. Delaware State University. Dover , Delaware. Delaware Valley University. Doylestown , Pennsylvania. Delta State University.

Cleveland , Mississippi. Denison University. Granville , Ohio. DePauw University. Greencastle , Indiana. Dickinson College. Carlisle , Pennsylvania.

Dickinson State University. Dickinson , North Dakota. Dixie State University. Saint George , Utah. Doane University. Crete , Nebraska. Dordt University. Sioux Center , Iowa. Drake University. Des Moines , Iowa. Duke University. Durham , North Carolina. Duquesne University.

East Carolina University. Greenville , North Carolina. East Central Community College. Decatur , Mississippi. East Central University. Ada , Oklahoma. East Los Angeles College. Monterey Park , California. East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania.

East Stroudsburg , Pennsylvania. East Tennessee State University. Johnson City , Tennessee. East Texas Baptist University. Marshall , Texas. Eastern Illinois University. Charleston , Illinois.

Eastern Kentucky University. Richmond , Kentucky. Eastern Michigan University. Ypsilanti , Michigan. Eastern New Mexico University. Portales , New Mexico. Eastern Oregon University. La Grande , Oregon. Eastern Washington University. Cheney , Washington. Edinboro University. Edinboro , Pennsylvania. Edward Waters College. Jacksonville , Florida. El Camino College — Compton Center. Compton , California. Elizabeth City State University. Elizabeth City , North Carolina.

Ellsworth Community College. Iowa Falls , Iowa. Elmhurst University. Elmhurst , Illinois. Elon University. Elon , North Carolina. Emory , Virginia.

Emporia State University. Emporia , Kansas. Endicott College. Beverly , Massachusetts. Erskine College. Due West , South Carolina. Eureka College. Eureka , Illinois. Evangel University. Springfield , Missouri. Fairleigh Dickinson University — College at Florham. Madison , New Jersey. Fairmont State University. Fairmont , West Virginia. Faulkner University. Fayetteville State University. Fayetteville , North Carolina. Feather River College.

Quincy , California. Ferris State University. Big Rapids , Michigan. The actual teams that are chosen for the at-large berths are determined by the individual bowl committees. If fewer than 10 teams are eligible for selection, then an at-large team will be any Football Bowl Subdivision team that is bowl-eligible, has won at least nine regular-season games, and is among the top 18 teams in the final BCS Standings, though any at-large team ranked in the top 14 will be guaranteed a bid over at-large teams ranked lower than 14th.

If fewer than 10 teams are eligible after expanding the at-large pool to 18 teams, then the at-large pool will continue to be expanded by four additional positions in the BCS Standings until 10 or more teams are eligible.

No team ranked lower than 14 has used this rule to earn an at-large bid, although several teams ranked lower than 14 have received a bid for winning their conference, as the rule was not in place in the early years of the BCS. Unless their champion is involved in the BCS National Championship game, the conference tie-ins are:.

The Rose Bowl is permitted to override this provision if it has been taken within the previous four seasons. All 11 conferences compete for an opportunity to earn AQ status. As agreed by all 11 conferences, the results of the , , , and regular seasons were evaluated to determine which conferences earned automatic qualification.

Three criteria were used: Rank of the highest-ranked team, rank of all conference teams, and number of teams in the top The six conferences which met that standard are the current BCS conferences.

The , , , and seasons will be used to determine if another conference achieves automatic qualification for the BCS games that will conclude the and seasons. For the portions of the ranking that are determined by polls and computer-generated rankings, the BCS uses a series of Borda counts to arrive at its overall rankings. This is an example of using a voting system to generate a complete ordered list of winners from both human and computer-constructed votes.

Obtaining a fair ranking system is a difficult mathematical problem and numerous algorithms have been proposed for ranking college football teams in particular. One example is the "random-walker rankings" studied by applied mathematicians Thomas Callaghan, Peter Mucha , and Mason Porter that employs the science of complex networks. The BCS formula calculated the top 25 teams in poll format.

After combining a number of factors, a final point total was created and the teams that received the 25 lowest scores were ranked in descending order. The factors were:. Margin of victory is a key component in the decision of the computer rankings to determine the BCS standings.

The lowest ranking was dropped and the remainder averaged. The change was made because the BCS wanted computer rankings that did not depend heavily on margin of victory. A team's poll average, computer average, strength of schedule points, and losses were added to create a subtotal. Also in , a quality win component was added. If a team beat a team which was in the top 15 in the BCS standings, a range of 1. Beating the 1 ranked team resulted in a subtraction of 1.

Beating the 15 ranked team would have resulted in a deduction of. A team would only be awarded for a quality win once if it beat a Top 10 team more than once such as in the regular season and a conference championship game , and quality wins were determined using a team's current subtotal, not the ranking when the game was played. The subtotal ranks were used to determine quality win deductions to create a team's final score.

The BCS continued to purge ranking systems which included margin of victory, causing the removal of the Matthews and David Rothman statistician ratings before the season. Sagarin provided a BCS-specific formula that did not include margin of victory, and the New York Times index returned in a form without margin of victory considerations.

In addition, a new computer ranking, the Wesley Colley Matrix, was added. Also in , the quality win component was modified such that the deduction for beating the 1 team in the BCS would be 1. Teams on probation were not included in the BCS standings, but quality win points were given to teams who beat teams on probation as if they were ranked accordingly in the BCS. LSU vs.

Supporters of USC and the media in general criticized the fact that polls were not weighted more heavily than computer rankings and this criticism led to the new algorithm. The team with the highest average shall rank first in the BCS standings. For USC, dropping their highest and lowest computer rankings would have left them with four third-place finishes, worth 23 points each for a total of 92, while LSU would have had four second-place finishes for a total of The BCS averaged the three numbers obtained above, divided the result by , and converted it to a decimal fraction.

This system placed twice as much emphasis on polls than computer rankings since there were two polls and an average of six computer rankings , and made it highly unlikely that the top team in both polls would be denied a place in the title game, as it happened in — In the week of April 20, , Bowl Championship Series commissioners were meeting for its annual spring meetings in Pasadena, California in conjunction with the Rose Bowl 's staging the BCS title game.

The commissioners considered a proposal from the Mountain West Conference , which would establish an eight-team playoff and provide better accesses to the four BCS bowl games for the five conferences that do not have automatic bids. The proposal also included a motion to replace the BCS rankings with a selection and a motion to change the automatic qualifier criteria to better reflect inter-conference performance.

The BCS rejected the proposal in June , citing a "lack of overall support" among the member conferences. Congress , which determined that the BCS was not in violation of any laws or constitutional amendments, although this has since been reconsidered and the BCS is currently under renewed federal anti-trust scrutiny from the Justice Department.

The games are listed in chronological order, the rankings reflect the final BCS standings, and the win-loss data is prior to the BCS Bowls. So, the Season ended with split champions which is what the BCS was organized to prevent. Because of this split championship, changes were made to the BCS formula for the —05 season. The games are listed in chronological order. Some games dates are pending, so a range is given.

Also games dates and times are subject to change and to final agreement with TV partners. Boise State's bid in the Fiesta Bowl is the only time a team from a non-automatic-qualifying conference has received an at-large bid as TCU received the automatic bid in Many critics focus on the BCS methodology itself, which employs subjective voting assessments, while others note the ability for undefeated teams to finish seasons without an opportunity to play in the national championship game.

Other criticisms involve discrepancies in the allocation of monetary resources from BCS games, as well as the determination of non-championship BCS game participants, which need not comply with the BCS rankings themselves.

Longtime college football announcer Brent Musburger also voiced his support for a playoff in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. Then, like now, one week later, there would be the national championship game. In , a lawsuit was threatened due to the exclusion of teams from the non-automatic qualifying conferences in the BCS system.

According to CBSSports. The letter, received on January 29, , states that the Obama administration will explore options to establish a college football playoff including a an anti-trust lawsuit against the BCS, b legal action under Federal Trade Commission consumer protection laws, c encouragement of the NCAA to take control of the college football postseason, d the establishment of an agency to review the costs and benefits of adopting a playoff system, and e continued legislation in favor of a playoff system.

Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich writes, "The administration shares your belief that the lack of a college football national championship playoff In April , Utah attorney general Mark Shurtleff announced he would file an antitrust lawsuit against the BCS for, "serious antitrust violations that are harming taxpayer-funded institutions to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The BCS bowls have been accused of promoting the BCS system because they and their executive officers greatly benefit financially from the system. Bowl executives, such as John Junker of the Fiesta Bowl , are often paid unusually high salaries for employees of non-profit organizations. To promote support for their bowls and the BCS system, these highly-paid executives allegedly give lavish gifts to politicians, collegiate sports executives, and university athletic directors. The complaint alleges that the top BCS bowls, with the exception of the Rose Bowl , routinely abuse favorable tax status by using charitable donations to give gifts and compensation to college athletic officials.

In one example detailed in the complaint, the Orange Bowl treated its executive staff and invited college athletic directors to a four day Royal Caribbean cruise in which no business meetings were held.

Over the last two years, an increasing eye has been getting turned toward programs which have earned BCS bowl bids by illegal conduct under the rules and regulations of the NCAA. In the summer of alone, in addition to the allegations noted above with respect to the Fiesta Bowl:. While there is substantial criticism aimed at the BCS system from coaches, media, and fans alike, there is also support for the system. Under the BCS, a single defeat is extremely detrimental to a team's prospects for a national championship, [52] although critics point out regularly that history shows non-BCS conference teams are hurt far more than BCS teams when they lose a game.

Supporters contend that this creates a substantial incentive for teams to do their best to win every game. Under a playoff system, front-running teams could be in a position of safety at the end of the regular season and could pull or greatly reduce their use of top players in order to protect them from injuries or give them recovery time this happens frequently in the NFL.

While the BCS routinely involves controversy about which two teams are the top teams, in rare instances there is a clear-cut top two; the BCS ensures these top two will play each other for the championship. For example, USC and Texas in were the only undefeated teams; both teams were only tested a couple of times all season and mauled every other opponent they faced by large margins. Had this scenario occurred before the inception of the BCS, the teams would have been unable to play each other due to contractual obligations with the major bowls and there either would have been dual national champions or Texas would have been denied the title despite their record and talent.

Under the BCS system however, these two teams got to play for the championship. According to its website, the BCS: " Utah Utes fans rush the field and carry the goalpost after defeating rival BYU , completing a perfect regular season , and becoming the first BCS Buster by clinching a spot in the Fiesta Bowl hence the sombrero.

This makes becoming a BCS Buster very noteworthy. This consistent selection of one Conference's teams, and other questionable selections, have been one area of intense criticism of the BCS system and its exclusionary tendencies.