by Nik Fisher

Created on: December 02, 2008   Last Updated: December 10, 2008

Understanding the rules that govern the BCS standings can be tricky for even the most seasoned NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision fan. The first thing you need to understand is that the BCS system determines the rankings for the top twenty five teams in the nation. These rankings then help decide the Bowl match ups for the year.

According to the BCS system there are four top bowl games; the Rose Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, and the Sugar Bowl. A fifth game, the National Championship Game, rotates between the four sites. The game will be held in Florida in 2009, Pasadena in 2010, Arizona in 2011, and New Orleans in 2012.

There are ten open spots in the BCS games. The top two teams after the regular season and conference championships play in the National Title Game. There are six conferences that automatically receive BCS bowl bids; the Big East, the Big 10, the Big 12, the Pac 10, the SEC, and that ACC. There are two at-large bids. A team that is not in the Big Six but plays in FBS football must receive a bid if they finish in the top 12 of the BCS rankings and are the highest ranked non-Big Six team. A non-Big Six team can also receive an automatic bid if that team is ranked higher than #16 and they are ranked higher than a Big Six conference champion.

The BCS rankings are determined by three polls, the USA Today Coaches' Poll, the Harris Interactive Poll, and the average of six computer polls. The BCS uses the average of these three polls for its rankings.

The Coaches' Poll is the easiest and most traditional poll. The coaches of FBS vote who they believe are the top twenty-five teams. The number of ranking points is the multiplied by the number of coaches voting.

Harris Interactive is a market research agency that uses data gathering in their pursuit to rank the top teams in the nation. They are one of the most well respected market researchers in the nation. Harris chooses 119 (the number of FBS teams) panelists at random to rank the teams. Most of the panelists are well known and respected sports minds.

The six computer polls are provided by the Massey Ratings, Jeff Sagarin, The Billingsly Report, Jeff Anderson, Wesley Colley, and Dr. Peter Wolf. Information of these polls can be found on their individual websites.

You should try to keep calm when deciphering the BCS standings. Many experts do not understand the system themselves. A good way to understand the system is to think about how different scenarios will play out. What if UCLA beats USC? What if Missouri beats Oklahoma? Think about how these will affect the rest of the rankings.

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