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FACTORS

The final Bowl Championship Series standings were released Dec. 7. Oklahoma and LSU, the two teams with the lowest point total from four categories (poll average, computer average, strength of schedule, losses), will play for the national championship in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 4, 2004. The BCS also consists of the Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl.

Six of the eight spots in the four BCS bowl games are reserved for the champions of the ACC (Florida State), Big East (Miami), Big Ten (Michigan), Big 12 (Kansas State), Pac-10 (USC) and SEC (LSU).

The two at-large berths are determined using the following format in this order:

1. Finishing first or second in the BCS
2. Any Division I-A independent, or winners of Conference USA, Mountain West, Sun Belt or WAC ranked higher than sixth in the BCS. Notre Dame also qualifies by winning nine games* or being in the Top 10 in the BCS.
3. Finishing third in the BCS.
4. Finishing fourth in the BCS.
5. At least nine wins* and finishing in the top 12 in the BCS.

* Wins in non-exempt games and conference championship games don't count

BCS categories:

• Poll average (25 percent): The average of the Associated Press media poll and USA Today-ESPN coaches' poll.

• Computer average (25 percent): The second component consists of seven computer rankings. These computer rankings include Jeff Anderson-Chris Hester, Richard Billingsley, Colley Matrix, Kenneth Massey, New York Times, Jeff Sagarin and Peter Wolfe.
  
  The computer component is determined by averging the rankings with the worst rating disregarded. For example, if a team is ranked first in three polls, second in three, and third in one, the third-place ranking will be disregarded and the remaining six polls will be added and divided by six (1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2 = 9/6 = 1.50).

• Strength of schedule (25 percent): This component is calculated by determing the cumulative won/loss records of the team's opponents and cumulative won/loss records of the team's opponents' opponents. The formula shall be weighed two-thirds (66.67%) for the opponent's record and one-third (33.33%) for the opponents' opponents record. The team's schedule strength shall be calculated to determine its quartile ranking, thus the team's schedule ranking will be divided by 25. For example, if a team's schedule strength rating is 28th in the nation, that team would receive 1.12 points (28/25 = 1.12).
  
  Should a team play a Division I-AA opponent, only the losses of the Division I-AA team or the wins of that team against a Division I-A team will be used in determining the opponent's record or the opponent's opponents' record.

• Losses (25 percent): One point for each loss during the season

Quality wins:
A component to reward teams for beating Top 10 teams at the time of the calculation, not the time the game was played.

After the base BCS ratings are determined, a team gets a bonus point reduction based on a sliding scale for a win over a Top 10 team. A win over the No. 1 team in the basic ratings is worth a 1.0 point reduction, a win over the No. 2 team earns a 0.9 point reduciton all the way down to a 0.1 point reduction for beating the No. 10 team.

Note: If a team defeats the same Top 10 team in the regular season and in a conference championship game, it only gets credited once for a quality win.

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