Bowl Championship Series

Bowl Championship Series
BCS logo (2010–2013)
In operation	1998–2013
Preceded by	Bowl Alliance (1995–1997) Bowl Coalition (1992–1994)
Succeeded by	New Year's Six/College Football Playoff (2014–present)
Number of BCS games	5 per season (4 from 1998 to 2006)
Championship trophy	AFCA National Championship Trophy
Television partner(s)	ABC (1999–2006) FOX (2006–2009) ESPN (2009–2014)[1]
Most BCS appearances	Ohio State (10)
Most BCS wins	Ohio State, USC (6)
Most BCS championships	Alabama (3)
Conference with most appearances	Big Ten (28)
Conference with most game wins	SEC (17)
Conference with most championships	SEC (9)
Last championship game	2014 BCS National Championship Game
Executive director	Bill Hancock

The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of American college football, including an opportunity for the top two teams to compete in the BCS National Championship Game. The system was in place for the 1998 through 2013 seasons and in 2014 was replaced by the College Football Playoff under its original four-team format.

The BCS relied on a combination of polls and computer selection methods to determine relative team rankings, and to narrow the field to two teams to play in the BCS National Championship Game, held after the other college bowl games (the game rotated among four existing bowl games from the 1998 to 2005 season, and was a separate game from the 2006 to 2013 seasons). The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) was contractually bound to vote the winner of this game as the BCS National Champion and the contract signed by each conference required them to recognize the winner of the BCS National Championship game as the official and only champion. The BCS was created to end split championships and for the champion to win the title on the field between the two teams selected by the BCS.

The system also selected match-ups for four other prestigious BCS bowl games: the Rose Bowl Game, Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl. The ten teams selected included the conference champion from each of the six Automatic Qualifying conferences plus four others (two others prior to the 2006 season). The BCS was created by formal agreement by those six conferences (the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC); Big East, now the American Athletic Conference (The American); Big Ten Conference (Big Ten); Big 12 Conference (Big 12); Pac-10, now the Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12); Southeastern Conference (SEC) conferences); and the three FBS independent schools, and evolved to allow other conferences to participate to a lesser degree. For the 1998 through 2005 seasons, eight teams competed in four BCS bowls.

It had been in place since the 1998 season. The BCS replaced the Bowl Alliance, in place from 1995 to 1997, which had followed the Bowl Coalition, in place from 1992 to 1994. Prior to the Bowl Coalition's creation in 1992, the AP Poll's number one and two teams had met in a bowl game only 8 times in 56 seasons. The AP's top two teams met 13 out of the 16 seasons when the BCS was in place.

In the 2014 season, the BCS was discontinued and replaced by the College Football Playoff, which organizes a four-team playoff and national championship game.^[2] Ten years later, the playoff expanded to 12 teams.