A revised statistical rating system will be in place to determine the teams that will participate in the championship game of the Bowl Championship Series following the 1999 season. The rating system will consist of the same four major components used in 1998: subjective polls of the writers and coaches, computer rankings, schedule strength and number of losses. The two teams which have the lowest point total in the four categories will play in the national championship game.
The poll component will be calculated based on the average of the ranking of each team in the Associated Press media poll and the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll. The rankings of each team will be added and divided by two. For example, a team ranked number one in one poll and number two in the other poll would receive 1.5 points in this component (1+2 = 3/2 = 1.5).
The second component will consist of eight computer rankings. These computer rankings will include the three used
last year (New York Times, Jeff Sagarin's USA TODAY and The Anderson-Hester/Seattle Times) along with five
additional rankings: Richard Billingsley, Dunkel Index, Kenneth Massey, David Rothman and the Matthews/Scripps-Howard rankings. The computer component will be determined by averaging the seven highest computer rankings.
The lowest computer ranking will be disregarded. For example, if a team is ranked first in four polls, second in three
polls and third in another, the ranking in which the team is third will be disregarded and the remaining seven polls will
be added and divided by seven (1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3 = 10/7 = 1.43).
The third component will be the team's strength of schedule. This component is calculated by determining the cumulative won/loss records of the team's opponents and the cumulative won/loss records of the teams' opponents' opponents. The formula shall be weighted two-third (66 2/3%) for the opponent's record and one-third (33 1/3%) for the opponents' opponents record. The team's schedule strength shall be calculated to determine in which quartile it will rank: 1-25, 26-50; 51-75; 76-100 and shall be further quantified by its ranking within each quartile (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 shall be used in determining the opponent's record or the opponent's opponents' record.
The final component shall evaluate the team's won/loss record. Each loss during the season will represent one point in this component.
All four components shall be added together for a total rating. The team with the lowest point total shall rank first in the Bowl Championship Series Standings. The BCS Standings will not be published until the Monday following games of Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. CT each week. The complete BCS rankings will be available at Bowl Championship Series Online (www.abccfb.com) beginning Oct. 25. This system will be utilized only to select the teams that will participate in the championship game of the Bowl Championship Series and to determine any independent or team from a conference without an automatic selection which shall qualify for a guaranteed selection in one of the games of the Bowl Championship Series as the result of being ranked in the top six in the BCS Standings.