Story by Jon Solomon
The Birmingham News
April 16, 2006

Expanding the pool for eligible at-large Bowl Championship
Series slots will be a topic of discussion later this month
at the BCS meetings.

SEC Commissioner Mike Slive, the BCS coordinator for the
next two years, says the spring meeting of college
football's postseason format will likely address that
possibility, but most of the meetings will be spent on the
upcoming season and the current BCS bowls, which determine
the national title game participants.

Slive expects no significant changes to the BCS formula
used to set the field and which has changed components
every year since 1999.

"Now that's not to say somebody won't want to make a
change," Slive said. "I've said to others, 'We have peace
in the valley in the BCS,' and I don't anticipate having
the meeting disrupt the peace in the valley. We'll deal
with the realities in the fall depending on how things play
out during the season."

Although Slive is open-minded about changing the postseason
format, he said the upcoming meetings are designed to
coordinate next season. The 2007 postseason will be the
first with five BCS games, with the intention of providing
more access for leagues without an automatic BCS berth.

The champions from the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Pac-10, Big 12
and Big East each receive a BCS bid. The addition of two
more at-large bids--running the total to four--will cause
the BCS to re-examine eligibility standards so a larger
pool of teams is available. In the past, nine wins and a
top-12 BCS ranking were the at-large requirements.

"It's not rocket science," Slive said. "It's just a
question of how we want to manage that because we have two
more spots. It's not necessarily going to have a great
impact. I'm interested in hearing the discussion, and we'll
get input from everybody involved."

Non-BCS leagues can now earn an automatic bid with a top-12
BCS finish, or by ranking higher than the lowest-rated
champion from a BCS conference--if that champion is ranked
16th or lower. Previously, non-BCS leagues needed a top-six
finish for an automatic bid.

Access means serious money for conferences. Last season,
the six BCS leagues collected $89.2 million among them,
compared with $5.16 million for the remaining five Division
I-A leagues and $1.8 million for eight Division I-AA
conferences.

Last season also was a winner for the BCS, which began by
adding the Harris Interactive Poll after The Associated
Press pulled out. Only two teams were unbeaten (Texas and
Southern Cal), and they met in a heavily anticipated
national championship game at the Rose Bowl that surpassed
its hype.

Texas' dramatic victory drew a 21.7 rating for ABC, the
highest college football rating since the Penn State-Miami
Fiesta Bowl drew a 25.1 in 1987. The four BCS games had a
combined 55.79 rating, the highest in BCS history and
almost 30 percent higher than the 2005 total.

Before last season, the BCS endured back-to-back
controversial postseasons with at least three teams
fighting for two spots in the title game. USC, Oklahoma and
LSU each had one loss in 2003, and USC, Oklahoma, Auburn
and Utah were perfect in 2004.

Slive expects the BCS will again use the coaches' poll, the
Harris poll and an average of six computer rankings to
determine the No. 1 vs. No. 2 title game.

One issue to be discussed at the meetings will be
coordinating a fifth bowl. The Fiesta Bowl will be Jan. 1,
followed a week later by the BCS championship game at the
same site.

"It will be interesting to see just how well it works,"
Slive said. "There's no format in mind that is in stone.
We'll see over the next four-year period how this works."

Having experienced Auburn's snub in 2004, Slive is open to
considering format changes in the future. That includes
staging a "plus-one" format with semifinal games followed a
week later by the championship.

"There could be a format that we really haven't focused on
or thought enough about yet," Slive said. "Or if the annual
nervousness of the BCS continues every fall, we could go
back to the good ol' days where we don't have the BCS. We
just go back to the bowl games. I don't know what the
future holds."

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