When college football fans think of the BCS, many consider the ‘C’ silent. The Bowl Championship Series’ intended goal is to determine a national champion in college football while still maintaining traditional bowl games.

It’s become a mathematical mess that combines polls few know about and formulas even fewer care about. Even students in MAT 621 might struggle figuring out something that students sitting at Harry’s debate about-who should play for the national championship?

Opinions aside, the BCS formula has been tinkered with the past few seasons, trying to calm critics who bash the bowl system. Officials revised it again this offseason. The result, to the behest of many fans, still lacks a playoff system.

However, the BCS did agree to add a fifth BCS bowl that will serve as a championship game starting in the 2006 season. The contest will be separate from the four existing BCS bowls-the Fiesta, Orange, Sugar and Rose bowls. The addition means two more schools will qualify for a BCS game.

Perhaps the biggest change is the creation of the Harris Interactive Poll, taking the place of the perennially recognized Associated Press poll. The Harris Poll still has complicated statistics, but involves votes from a 114-member panel that includes former players, coaches, administrators and members of the media as a legacy from the AP poll. Former Syracuse director of athletics Jake Crouthamel is on the panel. Football icons Terry Bradshaw, Steve Largent and Anthony Munoz also have votes.

The first poll won’t be conducted until late September, eliminating preseason polls from the equation. This is an intriguing feature that many experts claim sullies the traditional polls. Auburn, for example, went undefeated in 2004 but did not play for the national championship because USC and Oklahoma, two undefeated programs that ranked above the Tigers in the preseason, finished on top.

The USA Today Coaches Top 25 poll, though, will still be considered in the BCS. It will also continue polling in the preseason.

‘We always felt that preseason polls are a weakness of the human polls in a sense that it is important to see the results of games played in that season before it is best to conduct a ranking of teams,’ BCS coordinator Kevin Weiberg said. ‘I think the coaches association felt very strongly that their poll was one that served as a significant promotion for college football leading into the season. We spent a lot of time discussing that, and in the end decided to go forward with the coaches’ poll continuing to have a preseason element to it.’

Another topic that presides in the BCS debate is how to approach conferences that do not have automatic bids. Utah rose to the top five in the BCS rankings last season from the Mountain West Conference, which does not get an automatic bid to a BCS bowl. Utah’s ranking was high enough to land them in the Fiesta Bowl, but Tulane had to settle for the Liberty Bowl in 1998 after going unbeaten out of the non-BCS Conference USA.

This issue takes a more relevant role with Syracuse in the reconfigured Big East. Nothing changes with the Orange in terms of the BCS landscape, though the conference will be under a microscope.

Without traditional powers Miami and Virginia Tech, the quality of football in the Big East is not the same. Louisville is emerging as a marquee program, but West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Syracuse all experienced off-and-on success throughout the past decade.

A lot will depend on whether Big East preseason favorite Louisville can fill the void of the departed programs.

Louisville’s 2004 season was out of a storybook, finishing 11-1, with the lone loss coming in the final minutes of a game against Miami. Their offense was arguably the finest in the country. Still, the Cardinals-who dominated Conference USA-had to settle for the Liberty Bowl, which isn’t among the prestigious New Year’s Day games.

This season, that all changes. When they host Syracuse on Nov. 26, the Cardinals could be playing for a spot in the BCS.

‘It’s great for the recruiting trail and it’s great for our players,’ Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino said. ‘Now they know if you’re the champion of the Big East Conference, you go to a BCS bowl game. If you take care of your business in the other games, you have an opportunity to win a national championship.’

But an argument could be made that the new Big East is not much stronger than a conference like the Mid-American Conference or the Mountain West and therefore shouldn’t be entitled to an automatic BCS bid. Pittsburgh received a spot in the Fiesta Bowl last season for winning the Big East even though the Panthers were only 21st in the BCS rankings.

It’s something the BCS will certainly watch. They will evaluate conferences over a four-year period based on the average rank of the highest-ranked team. The BCS will also look at a conference’s overall strength. Even with that structure, Weiberg said there will be a provision that would allow a conference to be considered if it was not clearly similar to the five others.

Regardless, the BCS will still draw the ire of many college football fans. The changes are encouraging, but still lack a widely desired playoff system. And from all indications, it’s not changing any time soon.

‘There’s been no directive from college presidents and chancellors to ask us to research creating a playoff structure,’ Weiberg said. ‘The bowl system rewards 56 of those approximately 120 teams. A playoff structure would erode the base of the bowls.’

Published on September 17, 2005 at 12:00 pm