BCS Bowl Possibilities
Ten Berths Up For Grabs in Five BCS Games
The champions of college football's six major conferences earn automatic berths into BCS bowl games. Four additional teams are selected as at-large teams, although it appears Utah will clinch one of those at-large spots automatically. Each conference can have no more than two teams selected for the 10 BCS slots.
FOX TV will broadcast the BCS Selection Show on Sunday, Dec. 7, at 8 p.m. Eastern, where the matchups for the five BCS bowls will be announced. FOX also will broadcast four of the five BCS games Jan. 1-8, with ABC broadcasting the Rose Bowl Jan. 1.
To see a full listing of the college football bowl schedule, along with game times and TV networks, visit this link:
http://college-football.suite101.com/article.cfm/college_football_bowl_schedule
Here are the possibilities for the bids for college football's 10 berths in BCS bowl games.
Six automatic berths
- ACC: Virginia Tech (won Dec. 6 ACC Championship Game over Boston College, 30-12)
- Big 12: Oklahoma (won Dec. 6 Big XII Championship Game over Missouri, 62-21)
- Big East: Cincinnati (won the Big East title outright)
- Big Ten: Penn State (tied Ohio State for Big Ten title, but Penn State won tie-breaker over Ohio State)
- Pac-10: USC (won the Pac-10 title outright)
- SEC: Florida (won Dec. 6 SEC Championship Game over Alabama, 31-20)
Four at-large berths
- Utah: If the Utes remain in the Top 12 of the BCS standings on Dec. 7 and ranked higher than any other non-BCS conference team, which almost certainly will happen, they receive an automatic BCS berth
- Big XII team (probable - Texas)
- SEC team (probable - Alabama)
- Big 10 team (probable - Ohio State)
- Other BCS Conference teams (probable - Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, and Georgia Tech might be in the Top 14 of the final BCS standings, but none are expected to receive an at-large invitation.
- Boise State and TCU also potentially will be eligible as non-BCS conference teams by finishing in the Top 14, but it appears highly unlikely that either the Broncos or Horned Frogs will receive an at-large inviation.
BCS selection rules
When the BCS standings are released on Dec. 7, these five bowl games will select these teams:
- BCS Championship Game (in Miami): Teams ranked #1 and #2 in BCS standings
- Fiesta Bowl: Big XII champion (anchor team) vs non-affiliated team
- Sugar Bowl: SEC champion (anchor team) vs non-affiliated team
- Orange Bowl: ACC champion (anchor team) vs non-affiliated team
- Rose Bowl: Big 10 champion (anchor team) vs Pac-10 champion (anchor team)
When a bowl loses its anchor team to the BCS championship game as the #1 ranked team in the BCS standings, it receives the first pick among the available, non-affiliated BCS teams as a replacement. The bowl losing the #2 ranked team receives the second pick. Then, the order of selection to fill the bowls with the remaining non-affiliated teams will be: Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange.
It's expected that Florida and Oklahoma will hold the #1 and #2 spots in the BCS rankings, meaning the Sugar and Fiesta Bowls would lose their anchor teams. The Sugar Bowl is expected to pick Alabama as its replacement, and the Fiesta Bowl is expected to pick Texas as its replacement. The Fiesta then would pick next, likely taking Ohio State, exhausting the available at-large teams. The Sugar is expected to take Utah as an automatic qualifier, with Cincinnati then being left for the Orange.
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