This week in the BCS

BCS Standings
RK	TEAM	RECORD
1	Auburn	8-0
2	Oregon	7-0
3	Boise State	6-0
4	TCU	8-0
5	Michigan State	8-0
6	Missouri	7-0
7	Alabama	7-1
8	Utah	7-0
9	Oklahoma	6-1
10	Wisconsin	7-1
11	Ohio State	7-1
12	LSU	7-1
13	Stanford	6-1
14	Nebraska	6-1
15	Arizona	6-1
16	Florida State	6-1
17	Oklahoma State	6-1
18	Iowa	5-2
19	Arkansas	5-2
20	South Carolina	5-2
21	Mississippi State	6-2
22	Miami (FL)	5-2
23	Virginia Tech	6-2
24	Nevada	6-1
25	Baylor	6-2

Big 12 bowl projections: Week 8

By David Ubben

We'll start projecting the bowls in the Big 12 

every Sunday, beginning this week.

BCS National Championship: Oklahoma vs. BCS No. 2

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Nebraska vs. BCS at-large

AT&T Cotton Bowl: Texas vs. SEC

Valero Alamo Bowl: Missouri vs. Big Ten

Insight Bowl: Oklahoma State vs. Big Ten

Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl: Kansas State vs. Pac-10

Texas Bowl: Texas A&M vs. Big Ten

New Era Pinstripe Bowl: Texas Tech vs. Big East

Dallas Football Classic: Baylor vs. Big Ten

What is the BCS?

The Bowl Championship Series, or BCS, replaced what was known as the Bowl Alliance. It is the latest attempt to create a National Championship without having an actual playoff. The BCS is administered by the conference commissioners and the Notre Dame AD. They have created a rating system to determine who should play in the National Championship game at the end of the season. The top two teams in the ratings at the end of the regular season will meet in the title game.There are four bowls involved in the BCS: Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta.
Starting with the 2006 season, a fifth BCS game has been added to serve as the championship game. This is not the "plus one" system. This simply means that there will now be ten teams playing in BCS games instead of eight. The fifth game is played at the site of one of the other four. The four bowls will rotate as hosts. The Fiesta hosts the championship game this year, followed by the Sugar, Orange and Rose in the rotation.

Information provided by: BCS

Which teams are eligible for BCS bowls?

The automatic qualification standards are not the same for all teams. The teams are divided into four groups: automatic qualifying (AQ) conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac Ten, SEC), non-automatic qualifying conferences (C-USA, MAC, Mtn West, Sun Belt, WAC), Notre Dame, and other independents.There are ten spots in the five BCS bowl games (Rose, Fiesta, Orange, Sugar and the title game). No conference may place more than two teams in the BCS games, with one exception. If an AQ conference has the top two teams in the standings, but neither is the champion, then those two teams play for the BCS title as at-large teams, and the champion participates as well. This interpretation was changed in the 2008 season. The old interpretation was that the champion would not participate to keep the two-team limit in place.

1. The top two teams in the rankings. Those teams are assigned to the title game.
2. AQ conference champions, regardless of ranking.
3. The highest-rated champion of a non-AQ conference if it either ranks in the top 12 or is ranked in the top 16 and also ranked ahead of one of the champions of an AQ conference.
4. Notre Dame, if it finishes in the top eight.
5. The #3 team, if it is a member of an AQ conference and there is still an open spot.
6. The #4 team, if it is a member of an AQ conference and there is still an open spot and no team qualifies under rule 5.

If there are still open spots after all that, then any team can be selected by a BCS bowl if it:

Has 9 wins against I-A opponents (teams may count one I-AA win toward that total), and is rated in the top 14 of the BCS standings, or

Is a non-AQ conference champion and meets the qualification standard in #3, but was not the highest-rated team to do so.If, because of conflicts with two-team-per-conference limit, there are not enough teams in the at-large pool to fill the bowl openings, the pool will be expanded down the BCS standings by four teams. Teams must still have nine wins to be considered. If that still fails, the process will be repeated until the bowls are filled.
Note that for independents not named Notre Dame, the only way to automatically qualify is to finish #1 or #2.
Also, the #3 provision only applies to the champions of the non-AQ leagues. That means, for example, if TCU were to finish 11-1, but have that loss be to Utah, which is 8-4 overall, but 8-0 in Mtn West play, then TCU could not automatically qualify under rule #3 no matter how high it is ranked.