Discover

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, an undefeated Auburn team was 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 broadcasted 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 will sponsor the 2008 game, scheduled to be played in New Orleans, Louisiana on January 8, 2008 to conclude the 2007 season.

Contents

History

Future

Game results

Criticism

Television

References

See also

External links

History

From the 1992 through 1997 seasons, the Bowl Alliance and its predecessor, the Bowl Coalition, arranged a championship game. However, without the participation of the Big Ten and Pac 10 conferences, scheduling a definitive championship game was somewhat "hit or miss." For instance, undefeated 1994 #2 Penn State and undefeated 1997 #1 Michigan were obligated to play in the Rose Bowl pursuant to the Big Ten's contractual commitment and were therefore unable to participate in the championship game.
The Big Ten's "contractual commitment" in no way obligated the individual schools involved. Michigan in 1997, for instance, did receive an invitation from the Orange Bowl to play the eventual champion Nebraska, but due to their Big Ten Conference tie-in, had no choice but to play the lower ranked Pac-10 champion #7 Washington State, while Nebraska faced #3 Tennessee.
[1]
In 1994, Penn State had to play the much lower-ranked Pac-10 champion Oregon, resulting in a 38-20 Penn State victory in a game that was never close. The previous night, Nebraska came from behind to defeat #3 ranked Miami in the Orange Bowl to win a highly disputed mythical National Championship, as Penn State achieved a higher average margin of victory while playing a more difficult regular season schedule than Nebraska. Some people speculate that poll voters crowned Nebraska national champions because Coach Tom Osborne had had a brilliant career, but never won a national championship, while Penn State Coach Joe Paterno had already won two national championships.
The winners of "championship" games during these seasons were not assured of winning a national title. In reality, however, the winners of the games during these seasons did win or share the championship in every season that these games were arranged. As a result, the unofficial "National Championship Game" had become an annual event, and other bowl games began to be viewed as less significant events, which was certainly true with respect to their potential for determining the National Champion.
Finally, in 1998, the Bowl Alliance participating conferences and bowl games reached an agreement with the Big Ten, the Pac 10, and the Rose Bowl to join a "Super Alliance," which was subsequently christened the "Bowl Championship Series." Today, all Division 1 Football Bowl Subdivision schools and conferences contractually agreed to participate in the BCS, making it the first "true" national championship," although in reality, the game will not be a true national championship game if more than two teams finish the season undefeated, as was the case with an undefeated Auburn team in 2004.
During the initial eight seasons of the Bowl Championship Series (1998-2005) the championship game rotated among its four participating bowl games, the Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta Bowls. Beginning with the 2006 season, to increase television revenues and to make more BCS bowl slots available, the BCS has added a fifth game. Initially, it was anticipated that a fifth bowl would be added to the Championship Game rotation, potentially the Cotton Bowl or Capital One Bowl. However, the organizers ultimately settled on a format where the existing BCS bowls would host a second annual game on a rotating basis, that would take place one week after New Year's Day.
The teams participating in the BCS National Championship Game have always been the top two teams in the BCS rankings. These rankings are composite rankings including a poll of coaches, a poll of writers, and computer rankings. The computer ranking system has been tweaked over the years to address various concerns, such as the overweighting of strength of schedule. Also, following the 2003 season, the Associated Press prohibited the BCS from using its writers poll in determining BCS rankings, in part to preserve the integrity of its own process and results. As a result, the BCS has now commissioned a new writers poll, the Harris Interactive Poll, for inclusion in the BCS composite ranking process.

Future

Beginning with the 2006 season, the 'National Championship Game' became a separate event from the host bowl played at the same site as the host one week after 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 2008 game will bear the Allstate brand, the 2009 game the FedEx brand, and the 2010 game the Citi brand, with 2011 returning to the Tostitos brand.^[1]

Game results

★ ''For previous championship games from 1992-1994, see: Bowl Coalition championship game results''

★ ''For previous championship games from 1995-1997, see: Bowl Alliance championship game results

Season	Date	Winner		Loser		Bowl Game	Site	MVP
1998	January 4 1999	1 'Tennessee'	'23'	2 Florida State	16	1999 Fiesta Bowl	Sun Devil Stadium Tempe, Arizona	Peerless Price, Dwayne Goodrich
1999	January 4 2000	1 'Florida State'	'46'	2 Virginia Tech	29	2000 Sugar Bowl	Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana	Peter Warrick
2000	January 3 2001	1 'Oklahoma'	'13'	2 Florida State	2	2001 Orange Bowl	Pro Player Stadium Miami Gardens, Florida	Torrance Marshall
2001	January 3 2002	1 'Miami (Florida)'	'37'	4 Nebraska	14	2002 Rose Bowl	Rose Bowl Pasadena, California	Ken Dorsey, Andre Johnson
2002	January 3 2003	2 'Ohio State'	'31'†	1 Miami (Florida)	24	2003 Fiesta Bowl	Sun Devil Stadium Tempe, Arizona	Craig Krenzel, Mike Doss
2003	January 4 2004	2 'LSU'	'21'	1 Oklahoma	14	2004 Sugar Bowl	Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana	Justin Vincent
2004	January 4 2005	1 'Southern California'	'55'	2 Oklahoma	19	2005 Orange Bowl	Pro Player Stadium Miami Gardens, Florida	Matt Leinart
2005	January 4 2006	2 'Texas'	'41'	1 Southern California	38	2006 Rose Bowl	Rose Bowl Pasadena, California	Vince Young (offense); Michael Huff (defense)
2006	January 8 2007	2 'Florida'	'41'	1 Ohio State	14	2007 BCS National Championship Game	University of Phoenix Stadium Glendale, Arizona	Chris Leak (offense); Derrick Harvey (defense)
2007	January 7 2008	' '	' '			2008 BCS National Championship Game	Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana
2008	January 8 2009	' '	' '			2009 BCS Championship Game	Dolphin Stadium Miami Gardens, Florida
2009	January 8 2010	' '	' '			2010 BCS Championship Game	Rose Bowl Pasadena, California

†Double overtime

Criticism

Main articles: Mythical National Championship

Many critics of the Bowl Championship Series favor a full scale 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.
Although opinion polls among fans show overwhelming support for a college football playoff, some football traditionalists, including major college university presidents, strongly oppose a playoff system because of concerns that a playoff would destroy the bowl game tradition and reduce the importance of games played during the regular season. Critics of a playoff often point to the NFL where leading teams will often bench their starting players in the final few games of the regular season because a loss will cause no harm. Any such action in the college game would likely be minimized by the proposition that one extra loss would probably be enough to keep a team out of a limited sudden-death playoff system of 4 or 8 teams, such as has been most frequently proposed.

Television

★ Beginning 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 2008 and 2009 BCS Championship Games, then ABC will have the rights to the 2010 National Championship Game (as it will be played at the Rose Bowl).

Date	Network	Bowl	Play-by-play announcer	Color analyst	Sideline reporter(s)	Studio host	Studio analyst(s)
1999	ABC	Fiesta Bowl	Keith Jackson	Bob Griese	Lynn Swann	John Saunders	Terry Bowden
2000	ABC	Sugar Bowl	Brent Musburger	Gary Danielson	Lynn Swann Jack Arute	John Saunders	Terry Bowden
2001	ABC	Orange Bowl	Brad Nessler	Bob Griese	Lynn Swann	John Saunders	Terry Bowden
2002	ABC	Rose Bowl	Keith Jackson	Tim Brant	Lynn Swann Todd Harris	John Saunders	Terry Bowden
2003	ABC	Fiesta Bowl	Keith Jackson	Dan Fouts	Lynn Swann Todd Harris	John Saunders	Terry Bowden
2004	ABC	Sugar Bowl	Brent Musburger	Gary Danielson	Lynn Swann Jack Arute	John Saunders	Terry Bowden Craig James
2005	ABC	Orange Bowl	Brad Nessler	Bob Griese	Lynn Swann	John Saunders	Craig James Aaron Taylor
2006	ABC	Rose Bowl	Keith Jackson	Dan Fouts	Todd Harris Holly Rowe	John Saunders	Craig James Aaron Taylor
2007	FOX	Tostitos BCS National Championship Game	Thom Brennaman	Barry Alvarez Charles Davis	Chris Myers	Chris Rose	Jimmy Johnson Emmitt Smith Eddie George

References

1. Allstate press release, March 22, 2006

See also

★ Bowl Coalition championship game results

★ Bowl Alliance championship game results

★ Harris Interactive College Football Poll

External links

★ Bowl Championship Series - Official website of the Bowl Championship Series.

★ BCS Title Game - Unofficial website for the BCS National Championship