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Fiesta gets '07 title game; BCS seeks replacement poll
Posted: Tuesday April 26, 2005 11:31PM; Updated: Tuesday April 26, 2005 11:31PM
PHOENIX (AP) -- The Fiesta Bowl organization was awarded the first national college football championship game under the new, expanded Bowl Championship Series format on Tuesday and the BCS schools worked to find a new poll to help select the teams that will play for the title.
Beginning in the 2006 season, there will be a new game to determine the BCS national champion, a contest separate from the four existing BCS bowls -- the Fiesta, Orange, Sugar and Rose. In essence, it means that two more schools will qualify for a BCS contest.
As is the case under the current system, the teams that finish first and second in the BCS rankings will play for the championship.
The first title game under the new format will be played Jan. 8, 2007, at the Arizona Cardinals' new stadium set to open in the fall of 2006 in Glendale, Ariz. The Fiesta Bowl will be played in the same stadium a week earlier, on Jan. 1. The stadium also will be the site of the 2008 Super Bowl.
The formal announcement of the Fiesta selection came only hours after Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano signed legislation that would require the stadium authority to grant use of the new facility for college football. The bill also turns sales tax revenue from ticket sales and other transactions of the BCS games over to the Fiesta Bowl.
The provisions will mean about $1.75 million in revenue, Fiesta Bowl executive director John Junker said.
BCS coordinator Kevin Weiberg, commissioner of the Big 12 Conference, stopped short of saying the Fiesta would have been bypassed had the bill not become law.
"But clearly we would have some questions that would have to be answered about the financial commitments the Fiesta Bowl had made to us," Weiberg said.
The announcement means the sites for the championship game will continue in their current rotation -- Fiesta, Sugar, Orange and Rose. In all cases, the sites will host the national title game a week after their regular bowl games.
The second of the three days of BCS meetings centered on finding a replacement for The Associated Press poll as part of the formula to determine the two teams that play for the championship. Weiberg said that while other more radical changes aren't off the table, simply replacing the AP poll seems to be the preferred alternative of the BCS schools.
As of the end of last season, The Associated Press withdrew permission for using its poll in the BCS calculations. That left the ESPN-USA Today coaches' poll as the lone human-voting poll.
The BCS has promised a decision on the new formula by July 15, but Weiberg said it could be done sooner. Discussions will be held over the next two weeks to try to resolve the poll issues.
The National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame had representatives at the BCS meetings and emerged as a possible entity to oversee the new poll. The NCAA Division I-A Athletic Directors Association also is a possibility, but Weiberg said the athletic directors themselves were not keen on the idea of voting in such a poll.
"We continue to look at a poll that would potentially include a panel of voters that would be comprised of individuals who have had experience with the sport, either as administrators, coaches, perhaps former players, things of that kind," Weiberg said. "That's where we're putting most of our focus at this point."
Those voting in the new poll would have to make at least their final ballots public, Weiberg said. That's something the BCS leaders want the coaches' poll voters to do, too. Currently, coaches' ballots are secret.
"The issue of transparency continues to be a primary concern to us," Weiberg said. "We have not resolved those issues, and it is one of the considerations in determining whether we can move forward with a replacement poll. But I think, without a doubt, that issue continues to be sort of foremost in our mind both for the coaches poll as well as for any replacement poll that would plug into that spot."
Weiberg said the number of people voting in the new poll has yet to be determined. The new poll preferably would not start until early October, he said.
"We think that it's important for games to be played for voters to have a chance to see the results of those games," he said.
The BCS meetings conclude on Wednesday morning with discussions on whether changes should be made in the automatic bids given to bowl games. Currently, champions of the Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10, SEC, ACC and Big East get automatic bids to BCS bowl games.
However, the Big East lost several of its top schools to the ACC, and last year an automatic bid went to that conference's champion, Pittsburgh, even though the Panthers were only 21st in the BCS rankings.
Fiesta gets '07 title game; BCS seeks replacement poll
Posted: Tuesday April 26, 2005 11:31PM; Updated: Tuesday April 26, 2005 11:31PM
PHOENIX (AP) -- The Fiesta Bowl organization was awarded the first national college football championship game under the new, expanded Bowl Championship Series format on Tuesday and the BCS schools worked to find a new poll to help select the teams that will play for the title.
Beginning in the 2006 season, there will be a new game to determine the BCS national champion, a contest separate from the four existing BCS bowls -- the Fiesta, Orange, Sugar and Rose. In essence, it means that two more schools will qualify for a BCS contest.
As is the case under the current system, the teams that finish first and second in the BCS rankings will play for the championship.
The first title game under the new format will be played Jan. 8, 2007, at the Arizona Cardinals' new stadium set to open in the fall of 2006 in Glendale, Ariz. The Fiesta Bowl will be played in the same stadium a week earlier, on Jan. 1. The stadium also will be the site of the 2008 Super Bowl.
The formal announcement of the Fiesta selection came only hours after Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano signed legislation that would require the stadium authority to grant use of the new facility for college football. The bill also turns sales tax revenue from ticket sales and other transactions of the BCS games over to the Fiesta Bowl.
The provisions will mean about $1.75 million in revenue, Fiesta Bowl executive director John Junker said.
BCS coordinator Kevin Weiberg, commissioner of the Big 12 Conference, stopped short of saying the Fiesta would have been bypassed had the bill not become law.
"But clearly we would have some questions that would have to be answered about the financial commitments the Fiesta Bowl had made to us," Weiberg said.
The announcement means the sites for the championship game will continue in their current rotation -- Fiesta, Sugar, Orange and Rose. In all cases, the sites will host the national title game a week after their regular bowl games.
The second of the three days of BCS meetings centered on finding a replacement for The Associated Press poll as part of the formula to determine the two teams that play for the championship. Weiberg said that while other more radical changes aren't off the table, simply replacing the AP poll seems to be the preferred alternative of the BCS schools.
As of the end of last season, The Associated Press withdrew permission for using its poll in the BCS calculations. That left the ESPN-USA Today coaches' poll as the lone human-voting poll.
The BCS has promised a decision on the new formula by July 15, but Weiberg said it could be done sooner. Discussions will be held over the next two weeks to try to resolve the poll issues.
The National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame had representatives at the BCS meetings and emerged as a possible entity to oversee the new poll. The NCAA Division I-A Athletic Directors Association also is a possibility, but Weiberg said the athletic directors themselves were not keen on the idea of voting in such a poll.
"We continue to look at a poll that would potentially include a panel of voters that would be comprised of individuals who have had experience with the sport, either as administrators, coaches, perhaps former players, things of that kind," Weiberg said. "That's where we're putting most of our focus at this point."
Those voting in the new poll would have to make at least their final ballots public, Weiberg said. That's something the BCS leaders want the coaches' poll voters to do, too. Currently, coaches' ballots are secret.
"The issue of transparency continues to be a primary concern to us," Weiberg said. "We have not resolved those issues, and it is one of the considerations in determining whether we can move forward with a replacement poll. But I think, without a doubt, that issue continues to be sort of foremost in our mind both for the coaches poll as well as for any replacement poll that would plug into that spot."
Weiberg said the number of people voting in the new poll has yet to be determined. The new poll preferably would not start until early October, he said.
"We think that it's important for games to be played for voters to have a chance to see the results of those games," he said.
The BCS meetings conclude on Wednesday morning with discussions on whether changes should be made in the automatic bids given to bowl games. Currently, champions of the Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10, SEC, ACC and Big East get automatic bids to BCS bowl games.
However, the Big East lost several of its top schools to the ACC, and last year an automatic bid went to that conference's champion, Pittsburgh, even though the Panthers were only 21st in the BCS rankings.
