Sports
 

New BCS ranking system hopes to provide better-matched bowl games

By Uvaldo Lopez
The Daily Cougar

After many years of fan complaints about not being able to see college football's top two teams battle for the national championship, Bowl Championship Series announced in mid-July the re-structuring of the ranking system in hopes of solving this problem.

BCS Coordinator and Big 12 Commissioner Kevin Wieberg conducted a media teleconference Thursday, July 15 at 11 a.m. He announced changes that were made to the BCS statistical rating system that would be both "simpler and more precise." These changes are intended to improve the integrity of college football.

The changes had unanimous support from the 11 commissioners from the Division I-A conferences, along with Notre Dame Athletic Director Kevin White and the BCS presidential oversight committee. After examining historical results, the old components of the team-ranking formula and the computer polls, they came up with three new components which include the Associated Press media poll, the USA Today/ESPN Coach's poll and an average of six computer polls.

Teams will have a percentage score in each of these components. The percentages of all three will be averaged to determine their BCS rank. However, the formula will exclude strength of schedule, a quality win and team loss column (these were components in the old system). Voting point totals will then be used from each poll. The computer rankings will still be used due to the balance they provide in measuring a team's performance.

"We believe this simpler, more precise system will be easier for fans to understand and will lead to results that are a better reflection of the national consensus about which teams should be participating in the BCS championship game," Weiberg said during the July 15 teleconference.

With any luck, this new system will allow the nation to watch the top two teams play for the BCS championship game. Under the old system, fans had to settle too many times for watching the No. 1 team play the No. 4 team or worse. 

Occasional problems are still likely, but under this new system, the problems and controversy may be held to a minimum.
 

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