BCS National Championship Game

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The BCS National Championship Game or BCS title game is the final bowl game of the annual Bowl Championship Series and is intended by Series organizers to determine the NCAA Division I-A national football championship. The game was first played at the conclusion of the 1998 College Football season after the Big Ten and Pac 10 conferences and the Rose Bowl Game joined the members of the former "Bowl Alliance" to form the Bowl Championship Series. The Bowl Alliance and its predecessor, the Bowl Coalition, featured championship games from 1992 through 1997.

Since the formation of the Bowl Championship Series, there have been several controversies regarding the formula used for selecting the participating teams. Most notably, following the 2003 season, the BCS ranking system excluded Associated Press No. 1 University of Southern California from the BCS Championship Game (The Nokia Sugar Bowl). The following season, in 2004, undefeated Auburn University and University of Utah teams were left out of the BCS Championship Game (The FedEx Orange Bowl). See Bowl Championship (main article) for a further discussion of these controversies.

The USA Today Coaches Poll is contractually obligated to name the winner of this game as the National Champion in its final poll of the season. Thus, the winner of the game is awarded the AFCA National Championship Trophy in a postgame ceremony. The winner also is automatically awarded the National Football Foundation's MacArthur Bowl national championship trophy.

The National Championship Game for 2006 was sponsored by Tostitos. It was played at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on January 8 2007 and broadcasted by FOX television network. The game featured the #1 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes and the #2 ranked Florida Gators. Florida won by the final score of 41-14. Allstate will sponsor the 2008 game between the #2 LSU Tigers and the #1 Ohio State Buckeyes. The game is scheduled to be played in New Orleans, Louisiana on January 7 2008 to conclude the 2007 season.

1 Future
- 1.1 Game results
- 1.2 Criticism
2 Television
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Future

Beginning with the 2006 season, the National Championship Game became a separate event from the host bowl played at the same site as the host on the Monday following New Year's Day. The game's location will rotate between the sites of the BCS bowls; note that the date of the game occurs in the calendar year following the corresponding NCAA football season:

University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona in 2007, 2011, 2015, etc.
The Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2008, 2012, 2016, etc.
Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida in 2009, 2013, 2017, etc.
The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California in 2010, 2014, 2018, etc.

The title sponsor of the BCS National Championship Game each year will be the same as that of the bowl game in that year's host location. Thus, the 2007 game was the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game, after the title sponsor of the Fiesta Bowl. Barring any changes in corporate sponsors, the 2008 game will bear the Allstate brand, the 2009 game the FedEx brand, and the 2010 game the Citi brand, with 2011 returning to the Tostitos brand.^[1]

[edit] Game results

For previous championship games from 1992-1994, see: Bowl Coalition championship game results
For previous championship games from 1995-1997, see: Bowl Alliance championship game results

Season	Date	Winner		Loser		Bowl Game	Site	MVP
1998	January 4 1999	1 Tennessee (SEC)	23	2 Florida State (ACC)	16	1999 Fiesta Bowl	Sun Devil Stadium Tempe, Arizona	Peerless Price, Dwayne Goodrich
1999	January 4 2000	1 Florida State (ACC)	46	2 Virginia Tech (Big East)	29	2000 Sugar Bowl	Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana	Peter Warrick
2000	January 3 2001	1 Oklahoma (Big 12)	13	2 Florida State (ACC)	2	2001 Orange Bowl	Pro Player Stadium Miami Gardens, Florida	Torrance Marshall
2001	January 3 2002	1 Miami (Florida) (Big East)	37	4 Nebraska (Big 12)	14	2002 Rose Bowl	Rose Bowl Pasadena, California	Ken Dorsey, Andre Johnson
2002	January 3 2003	2 Ohio State (Big Ten)	31^†	1 Miami (Florida) (Big East)	24	2003 Fiesta Bowl	Sun Devil Stadium Tempe, Arizona	Craig Krenzel, Mike Doss
2003	January 4 2004	2 LSU (SEC)	21	1 Oklahoma (Big 12)	14	2004 Sugar Bowl	Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana	Justin Vincent
2004	January 4 2005	1 Southern California (Pac 10)	55	2 Oklahoma (Big 12)	19	2005 Orange Bowl	Pro Player Stadium Miami Gardens, Florida	Matt Leinart
2005	January 4 2006	2 Texas (Big 12)	41	1 Southern California (Pac 10)	38	2006 Rose Bowl	Rose Bowl Pasadena, California	Vince Young (offense); Michael Huff (defense)
2006	January 8 2007	2 Florida (SEC)	41	1 Ohio State (Big Ten)	14	2007 BCS National Championship Game	University of Phoenix Stadium Glendale, Arizona	Chris Leak (offense); Derrick Harvey (defense)
2007	January 7 2008	1 Ohio State (Big Ten) vs. 2 LSU (SEC)				2008 BCS National Championship Game	Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana
2008	January 5 2009					2009 BCS Championship Game	Dolphin Stadium Miami Gardens, Florida
2009	January 4 2010					2010 BCS Championship Game	Rose Bowl Pasadena, California

Note 1: †Double overtime

Conference	Wins	Losses	Winning Teams	Losing Teams
SEC	3	0	Tennessee, LSU, Florida
Pac-10	1	1	USC	USC
Big Ten	1	1	Ohio State	Ohio State
Big 12	2	3	Oklahoma, Texas	Oklahoma (2 losses), Nebraska
ACC	1	2	Florida State	Florida State (2 losses)
Big East	1	2	Miami (FL)	Virginia Tech, Miami (FL)

[edit] Criticism

Main article: Mythical National Championship

Many critics of the Bowl Championship Series favor a full scale championship tournament with eight to sixteen teams, similar to that administered by the NCAA for its Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), Division II and Division III football championships. Others favor adopting the incremental step of adding a single post-bowl championship game between the winners of two BCS games among the top four ranked teams in the BCS standings, the so-called "plus one" option.

Although opinion polls among fans show overwhelming support for a college football playoff, some football traditionalists, including major college university presidents and coaches, strongly oppose a playoff system because of concerns that a playoff would destroy the bowl game tradition and reduce the importance of games played during the regular season. Critics of a playoff often point to the NFL where teams that have already clinched playoff berths will often bench their starting players in the final few games of the regular season because a loss will not prevent them from making the playoffs. Critics claim any such action in the college game would likely be minimized by the proposition that one extra loss would probably be enough to keep a team out of a limited sudden-death playoff system of 4 or 8 teams, such as has been most frequently proposed. However, it is to be noted that Appalachian State, which as of December 2007 has won the last three consecutive Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) championships, lost an average of two games over the three seasons -- a loss count that would have likely disqualified any team with a similar record from consideration for the current BCS championship.

[edit] Television

Beginning in 2007, and continuing until 2010, all games in the BCS will be televised by Fox, with the exception of those games played at the Rose Bowl (which will be televised by ABC). This means Fox has the rights to the 2008 and 2009 BCS Championship Games, then ABC will have the rights to the 2010 National Championship Game (as it will be played at the Rose Bowl).

Date	Network	Bowl	Play-by-play announcer	Color analyst	Sideline reporter(s)	Studio host	Studio analyst(s)
1999	ABC	Fiesta Bowl	Keith Jackson	Bob Griese	Lynn Swann	John Saunders	Terry Bowden
2000	ABC	Sugar Bowl	Brent Musburger	Gary Danielson	Lynn Swann Jack Arute	John Saunders	Terry Bowden
2001	ABC	Orange Bowl	Brad Nessler	Bob Griese	Lynn Swann Jack Arute	John Saunders	Terry Bowden
2002	ABC	Rose Bowl	Keith Jackson	Tim Brant	Lynn Swann Todd Harris	John Saunders	Terry Bowden
2003	ABC	Fiesta Bowl	Keith Jackson	Dan Fouts	Lynn Swann Todd Harris	John Saunders	Terry Bowden
2004	ABC	Sugar Bowl	Brent Musburger	Gary Danielson	Lynn Swann Jack Arute	John Saunders	Terry Bowden Craig James
2005	ABC	Orange Bowl	Brad Nessler	Bob Griese	Lynn Swann Todd Harris	John Saunders	Craig James Aaron Taylor
2006	ABC	Rose Bowl	Keith Jackson	Dan Fouts	Todd Harris Holly Rowe	John Saunders	Craig James Aaron Taylor
2007	FOX	Tostitos BCS National Championship Game	Thom Brennaman	Barry Alvarez Charles Davis	Chris Myers	Chris Rose	Jimmy Johnson Emmitt Smith Eddie George
2008	FOX	Allstate BCS National Championship Game	Thom Brennaman	Charles Davis	Chris Myers	Chris Rose	Jimmy Johnson Barry Switzer