SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Bowl Championship Series released Thursday its formula for determining how conferences, such as the Mountain West, can earn an automatic bid to the big-money bowls.
The BCS uses three criteria that measure conference strength over a four-year period. The criteria are: the ranking of the highest-ranked team in the final BCS standings; the final regular-season computer rankings of all teams in a conference; and the number of teams in the top 25 of the final BCS standings.
Six conferences — the Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, SEC and Pac-10 — have automatic bids that are contractually bound through the 2013 season.
Another league could earn an automatic bid if it meets certain thresholds using those criteria.
For the first two criteria, the thresholds are being among the six best conferences in the country. For the third criteria, the league has to have an adjusted performance ranking of 50 percent or better. That number is derived using a point system that takes into account how each team in the conference was ranked (or not ranked) at the end of the season.
“By putting out the data, we’re hoping we can uncomplicate it,” BCS executive director Bill Hancock said.
The BCS is in the middle of a four-year evaluation period.
Hancock said the MWC is making a push to earn automatic bid status for the 2012 and 2013 seasons. Automatic bids for the next four-year cycle of the BCS, which will start in 2014, have not been determined. Utah and TCU earned BCS bids the past two seasons.
“The Mountain West has had two great years,” Hancock said. “They have a chance.”
Footnotes.
Boise State coach Chris Petersen’s new five- year, $8 million contract has been approved by the Idaho State Board of Education.
• Northwestern and Illinois will play a Big Ten game at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Nov. 20.
• The Meineke Bowl will be played on New Year’s Eve for the second time. The game in Charlotte, N.C., will be televised by ESPN.
