The Bowl Championship Series was the culmination of several efforts through the 1990s to bring together the top teams from across the nation to the biggest bowl games. Coming on the heels of the Bowl Coalition (1992-1994) and the Bowl Alliance (1995-1997), the BCS emerged in 1998 as the widest-ranging attempt to date to determine a national champion in college football. The history of college football is one of multiple dominant teams being sorted out by a poll of experts - whether sportswriters, coaches or a computer tabulating the results of each contest. The NCAA, born out of an effort to restrict encroaching professionalism in collegiate football following the MacCracken conferences of nearly sixty universities in 1905-1906, has never officially crowned a champion in Division I-A football... and thus the BCS is only the most recent step in attempting to determine the top teams at the end of the season.
The BCS is the most wide-reaching attempt to unite the traditionally strongest six Division I-A conferences with the top four bowl games. Traditionally, conferences have locked in guaranteed bids to bowl games. For instance, the Rose Bowl since 1947 has contractually matched the Pac-10 champion with the Big Ten champion. While this has inevitably led to exciting contests, it has not always led to there being a clear-cut number one team at the end of the season. Following the 1991 season, when the Miami Hurricanes and Washington Huskies split the AP and Coaches Polls for the de facto national crown, the Bowl Coalition united five power conferences (minus both the Big Ten and Pac-10) in an effort to force a final matchup between the number-one and number-two teams in the polls and allow a champion to be determined on the field. As conferences consolidated and expanded through the end of the century, the Coalition gave way to a new configuration in the Bowl Alliance. But without two of the biggest conferences in the fold, the Alliance suffered the same lack of legitimacy which plagued the Coalition.
Starting in 1998, the Rose Bowl, Big Ten and Pac-10 acquiesced, agreeing to release either conference champion to another bowl if they qualified as one of the top two teams to play for the crystal football. That first season, six conferences - the Pac-10, Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Big XII and Big East - received automatic bids to play in the Rose, Sugar, Fiesta and Orange Bowls. Utilizing a formula encompassing the AP and ESPN/USA Today Polls, three computer ranking systems (Sagarin, Anderson-Hester and New York Times), strength of schedule and losses, the BCS set up its four contests. On a rotating basis, the four bowls would each get a turn quadrennially to host the national title game.
For the first season, the 1999 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl earned the right to the game. As for the teams, SEC champion Tennessee battled ACC champion Florida State in Arizona. The Seminoles, led by Bobby Bowden, were seeking to claim the school's second national title. Bowden's squad contained the Volunteer attack most of the night, behind only 14-9 at the end of the third quarter. Tennessee quarterback Tee Martin nonetheless made enough big plays in the final quarter to guide his team to a 23-16 victory. Wide receiver Peerless Price, with a 79-yard touchdown reception from Martin opening up the scoring at the end, finished with 199 receiving yards on the night. Price's performance earned him MVP honors and helped bring Phillip Fulmer what would ultimately be his only national championship during his time in Knoxville.
The next year saw the national championship game come to the Big Easy as the 2000 Nokia Sugar Bowl held the season finale. Once again, Florida State traveled from Tallahassee to square off for the title. On the other side of the ball was Big East champion Virginia Tech. The Hokies, with redshirt freshman phenom Michael Vick electrifying its offense, fell behind quickly. The Seminoles, hungry after coming so close only a year before, pounced on the newcomers and jumped to a 14-0 lead by the end of the first quarter. Virginia Tech found some offense but was still behind by two touchdowns at the half, 28-14. After the half, though, the Hokies took the initiative and, by the start of the final quarter, had scored fifteen unanswered points to take a 29-28 lead. But they would be the last points Tech would score that night. Peter Warrick caught another touchdown and two-point conversion in the fourth quarter to go with his first-half receiving and punt-return scores. His six receptions from Chris Weinke for 163 yards and his twenty points scored led to his MVP award.
Florida State appeared to have a guaranteed slot as one of the title challengers when they won the ACC yet again and earned a berth in their third straight BCS national championship game. Heading across Florida to face Bob Stoops and the Big XII champion Oklahoma Sooners in the 2001 FedEx Orange Bowl, the Seminoles were confident of their chances to take a second national championship. In only his second season as head coach of Oklahoma, Stoops was facing off against a legend of the game in Bowden. Yet Oklahoma did not crumble under the pressure. The game turned quickly into a tight defensive battle. Sooner field goals in the first and third quarters by kicker Tim Duncan gave Oklahoma a 6-0 edge heading into the fourth. Tailback Quentin Griffin found the endzone in the fourth to extend the lead to thirteen. Florida State continued fighting, but could only manage a late safety to prevent the shutout. As the leader of the stout Sooner defense, linebacker Torrance Marshall took the MVP award as his team took the top honors on the season.
For the first time after the 2001-2002 season, Florida State did NOT earn the right to play for the title. The Rose Bowl, for the first time since 1919, would host neither a Pac-10 nor a Big Ten team - for the 2002 Rose Bowl was the stage for the BCS national championship as per the rotation. The Miami Hurricanes and Nebraska Cornhuskers headed to Pasadena to play for the crystal and the accolades in the fourth edition of the BCS championship game. Miami, champions of the Big East, were a lauded pick; Nebraska, having lost to Colorado in their final regular-season game and forfeited their division title and spot in the Big XII Championship, nonetheless leapfrogged the Pac-10 champion Oregon Ducks and Colorado itself to play in the title game. The Cornhuskers, viewed by many as illegitimate contenders, did nothing to dissuade this opinion. The Hurricanes had a 34-0 lead at halftime, and coasted through the second half to a 37-14 victory. Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey and favorite target Andre Johnson shared MVP honors on the night.
Following the 2002-2003 season, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl prepared to host the BCS championship game for a second time. Miami returned to the title game with a chance to defend its championship; few gave Jim Tressel and the Big Ten champion Ohio State Buckeyes a chance to pull off the upset. After Ken Dorsey found Roscoe Parrish in the first quarter to open a 7-0 lead, it looked as though the rout might be on once again. But in the second quarter, rushing touchdowns by quarterback Craig Krenzel and tailback Maurice Clarett allowed the Buckeyes to head to the locker room at halftime with a touchdown lead. Mike Nugent added a 44-yard field goal in the third to extend the lead to ten... but then Miami reawakened. First Willis McGahee rushed for a touchdown, and then Todd Sievers kicked a 40-yard field goal to send the BCS championship to overtime for the first time. In the first overtime period, Dorsey found tight end Kellen Winslow, Jr. for a touchdown. Ohio State answered with another Krenzel sneak over the goal line. In the second overtime, Maurice Clarett found the endzone a second time... and then the Buckeye defense held the Hurricanes on fourth and goal from the 1 to take the title 31-24. Clarett and interception-snagging safety Mike Doss shared MVP honors for the victor.
The 2003-2004 season saw another controversial decision keep the Pac-10 from contending once again for the national title after Oregon's snub two years prior. 11-1 USC, the Pac-10 champion, was kept out of the contest in favor of 12-1 Oklahoma despite the Sooners' loss to Kansas State in the Big XII championship game. Bob Stoops squared off in hopes of a second title against Nick Saban and the LSU Tigers at the 2004 Nokia Sugar Bowl. The Tigers and Sooners traded touchdowns before Justin Vincent gave LSU a 14-7 lead at the half. After the half, Oklahoma gave up what would prove to be the winning margin when Tigers defensive end Marcus Spears intercepted a pass from Heisman winner Jason White and returned it twenty yards and six points. The Sooners got a second touchdown from Kejuan Jones in the fourth quarter, but never led in the contest as LSU claimed its first national title since 1958. Running back Justin Vincent, with 117 yards and a touchdown on the night, earned the MVP award. The Tigers won the coaches title, but the AP voters ended up elevating the Trojans to number one after their 28-14 Rose Bowl victory over Michigan. The BCS had failed for the first time in determining a definitive champion.
The next year, USC got its chance to win an undisputed title... against the team which had usurped what it felt was its rightful spot in the title game the previous year. Pete Carroll and Bob Stoops led the Trojans and Sooners to Miami for the 2005 Orange Bowl. 2003 Heisman quarterback Jason White faced off against 2004 winner Matt Leinart, the first time that two Heisman winners faced one another for the BCS crown. It appeared at first that White had gained the upper hand when he found Travis Wilson for a five-yard touchdown to open the scoring. But Leinart soon answered, finding Dominique Byrd for a 33-yard touchdown. USC did not look back, LenDale White rushing for another touchdown in the first quarter to gain the lead. Leinart went on a tear in the second quarter, tossing three touchdowns (one to Dwayne Jarrett and two to Steve Smith) en route to a 38-10 Trojans halftime lead. Leinart found Smith a third time to open the second half, and the final score of 55-19 left USC the undisputed champion this time around. Matt Leinart finished with 332 yards on 18-of-35 passing with those five endzone strikes to definitively take the Orange Bowl MVP.
USC was lining up for another Seminole-like BCS dynasty as the 2006 Rose Bowl hosted the local team against Mack Brown's Texas Longhorns. The Trojans, once again guided by Leinart, were riding a 34-game winning streak into the game. Texas, the only other undefeated team in Division I-A football, would prove a formidable foe. The defenses were on fire to open the game, with only a kickoff fumble by the Longhorns leading to a Trojan score for the 7-0 first quarter lead. Texas would respond in the second quarter, scoring sixteen unanswered before Mario Danelo's 43-yard field goal cut USC's deficit to 16-10 at the half. Both teams were evenly matched through the rest of the game. LenDale White scored to give USC the lead once again; Vince Young responded two minutes later; and White replied in kind to give the Trojans a slim 24-23 lead going into the final quarter. Reggie Bush got a touchdown of his own to start the fourth. Texas only managed a field goal on the next possession, pulling within five. Matt Leinart found Dwayne Jarrett for 22 yards and what would prove to be his only touchdown of the game, four fewer than last year's Orange Bowl. Up by twelve with less than seven minutes left in the game, it appeared as though USC would claim its third-straight national championship. Young took over the game, quickly driving the Longhorns to pull to 38-33. After holding the Trojans on fourth and two, Texas got the ball back on its own 44-yard line with 2:09 left in the game. Young proved up to the task, guiding his offense the 56 yards in ten plays, rushing himself for the final eight yards and crossing the plane with only nineteen seconds left to play. Young rushed himself for the two-point conversion, and the improbable comeback earned the quarterback MVP honors along with safety Michael Huff. Texas won the last BCS championship to be played on New Years Day and the last to be played as part of the four-bowl rotation.
The 2006-07 season saw the BCS expand to a fifth game. From here forward, the BCS National Championship became a codified game. Instead of matching the top two teams as one of the bowl matchups, each of the four feature bowls would now rotate as the host site of two games - their bowl and the BCS championship. The 2007 Fiesta Bowl, which saw BCS buster Boise State knock off Bob Stoops' Sooners in an overtime thriller, became the site for the inaugural BCS National Championship Game a week later. Ohio State, the Big Ten champion and a wire-to-wire number-one team over the course of the entire season, featured newly-minted Heisman winner Troy Smith as its field general. SEC champion Florida passed former number-two Michigan (whose only loss had come in its season finale with the Buckeyes in an offensive classic) to play for the trophy. Ted Ginn, Jr. took the opening kickoff 93 yards for the Buckeyes to give Ohio State the lead only sixteen seconds into the contest... but he injured himself in the process, ending his night and zapping the offense of its biggest threat. Florida would score six times before halftime against one Antonio Pittman touchdown rush to lead 34-14 at the intermission. A final Tim Tebow rush in the fourth quarter settled the final score at 41-14. Florida quarterback Chris Leak was the MVP on the night, completing 25 of 36 for 213 yards and a touchdown.
Ohio State had a chance at redemption during a wild 2007-08 season. The national championship picture changed drastically from September to December; a week before the release of the BCS berths, it appeared Missouri and West Virginia would play in the BCS Championship. But upsets were rampant through the season, and both the Tigers and Mountaineers fell in their final games to open the gates for the Buckeyes. As the Big Ten champions and the only one-loss team in the country, their berth was guaranteed. The SEC champion LSU Tigers emerged as the two-loss team to play for the title, setting up another Big Ten-SEC matchup for all the marbles. Ohio State scored first, and looked to have a much better shot at winning the crown than they did last year as the second quarter started 10-3 Buckeyes. But Matt Flynn took over for the Tigers, leading three touchdown drives to go to halftime with the 24-10 lead. Ohio State appeared down and out once again. Flynn tossed two more touchdown passes in the second half to get four altogether on the evening, earning MVP honors as Ohio State lost big once again on the biggest stage.
Bringing us to date. Tomorrow night, the eleventh installment of what amounts to a national championship in the BCS era will commence when Urban Meyer's Florida Gators play for a second title in three years against Bob Stoops and the Oklahoma Sooners. Meyer will be coaching in his second BCS title game and third BCS bowl overall (after guiding Utah to a 35-7 victory over Pittsburgh in the 2004 Orange Bowl); Stoops will be going for his second BCS championship in his fourth attempt. Regardless of who wins, the BCS has succeeded in creating buzz around the concept of finding a national champion. It may not always be a closely-knotted contest... it is often controversial, as in this 2008-09 season when several teams - 13-0 Utah, 12-1 USC, 12-1 Texas - had a legitimate argument for a spot in the title game... but it will continue to generate interest nonetheless. The system in many ways is insular, as evidenced by the nation's only undefeated team being denied a chance to play for the biggest prize simply because it is in the Mountain West Conference rather than one of the big six BCS conferences. But, for the visible future, it is the name of the game in big-time college football...