Building a better BCS
BY JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
4/24/12 at 4:51 AM
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USA Today obtained and published a BCS memo, dated April 4, with a directive of "Making college football better and even more popular." The document outlined two categories: "deciding the national champion" and "enhancing the bowl experience by including other games."
Four options for deciding the national champion:
BCS with adjustments: Keep the current arrangement but (a) change or eliminate automatic qualification except for contracts negotiated between conferences and bowls, (b) eliminate the two-team limit from a given conference, (c) play the games nearer to New Year's Day, (d) accommodate different conference champions participating in different bowl games.
Original plus one: After the bowl games are played, select two teams for the championship game.
Four-team event: Seeded semifinals and a championship game.
Four teams plus: The four highest-ranked teams meet in two games, except Big Ten and Pac-12 champions, who always play in Rose Bowl; if Big Ten or Pac-12 champ (or both) are in top four, those teams play in Rose Bowl and the other two games would be filled by the other four highest-ranked teams; after those games are played, two teams are selected for championship game.
Two options for additional BCS bowl games:
10- or 12-team event: If No. 2, 3 or 4 are adopted, create bowl opportunities for six or eight other teams in addition to the four in the semifinals.
20-team event: If No. 2, 3 or 4 are adopted, create bowl opportunities for 16 other teams in addition to the four in the semifinals.
