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BCS cartel cracks
door open
By MEL REISNER
AP Sports Writer
PHOENIX � Automatic bids
into the Bowl Championship Series won't just be for a small handful of
elite conferences anymore.
Starting in 2008, every
Division I-A college football conference will get a chance at an
automatic BCS bid � but earning that select status will be more involved
under a new proposal by officials who say they plan to evaluate the
leagues from top to bottom.
Currently, only the six
conferences that comprise the BCS can earn automatic entry into college
football's four major bowl games, including the national title game. The
previous standard for holding on to that qualification was based on the
average BCS standings finish of a conference's top team over a four-year
period.
That will still be a
factor, but not the only one.
``In addition, we will
look at a conference's overall strength,'' BCS coordinator Kevin Weiberg
said Wednesday, the final day of meetings with officials from 11 major
college football conferences and Notre Dame's athletic director.
The BCS will also take
into account the number of teams in a conference that finish in the BCS
top 25 in a four-year period.
In addition, there is a
proposed appeals process if a conference doesn't match up with the
others under the new formula but still believes it belongs in the BCS.
``We're set through the
first two years (2006-07) of the new agreement, with the same six
conferences having the automatic-qualification berths,'' said Weiberg,
the Big 12 commissioner. ``This evaluation will then occur, and it could
change for the final two years of this new agreement.''
The BCS signed a four-year
deal with Fox to televise the Sugar, Fiesta and Orange bowls from
2007-10 and the national title game from 2007-09. The Rose Bowl has its
own television deal with ABC.
Weiberg said the new
evaluation system could lead to more � or less � automatic bids.
The Big 12, Big Ten,
Pac-10, Southeastern, Atlantic Coast and Big East champions have had
automatic entry into the Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta bowls since the
BCS was implemented in 1998.
Other standards were set
to allow teams from outside the BCS conferences to qualify
automatically, but not until last year when Utah earned a spot in the
Fiesta Bowl had a team from outside one of the big six conferences
played in the BCS.
The BCS also decided last
year to expand to five games in the future. Starting with the 2006
season, 10 teams will qualify for the BCS, with the top two meeting in a
newly created championship game to be played a week after the four major
bowls.
The addition of another
game and the new evaluation process for automatic entry were prompted by
protests from the five lower-revenue conferences � such as the Mountain
West, where Utah plays, and Conference USA � that the BCS was unfairly
shutting out dozens of schools.
Of the original six BCS
conferences, the Big East would appear to be most affected by the
changes. The league lost Miami and Virginia Tech last season to the ACC;
Boston College follows this year. However, the addition of Louisville
this year, along with South Florida and Cincinnati, should help the Big
East's chances of keeping its elite status.
Weiberg said Louisville,
which finished 10th in the BCS standings last year while playing in
C-USA, will be included in the Big East's evaluation and should help the
league retain its bid.
``The reason for that is
that we're trying to get an assessment looking forward of the
prospective strength of the conference, even though it will be based on
past performance,'' Weiberg said.
Beginning in 2006, Notre
Dame will earn an automatic BCS berth with a top-eight ranking in the
final standings, Weiberg said. Also, under a new arrangement, Notre Dame
is now guaranteed BCS money every season � even when they don't play in
a game.
In the past, Notre Dame
received upward of $14 million when it played in a BCS game, but nothing
if it didn't.
The proposal and others
developed in Phoenix are subject to review by an 11-person committee
formed by university presidents. Weiberg said that would be done in a
teleconference call on May 12.
He said the athletic
directors who met in Phoenix will do more teleconferencing and possibly
have one more meeting to fine-tune proposals � especially the makeup of
the replacement poll to take the place of The AP poll in the new BCS
standings formula � before the Collegiate Commissioners Association
meetings in Denver on June 20.
The new poll will not be
unveiled until June at the earliest.
Page updated:
02/23/07 10:42 AM
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights rights reserved.
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