Every season, there are 10 teams that receive the honor to play in a Bowl Championship Series game. The BCS bowls are reserved for the elite in college football.  It is the equivalent of qualifying for the playoffs in other sports and if a playoff is ever introduced into the Football Bowl Subdivision, the BCS will mostly be the door through which it will enter.

There are two ways a team can be invited to play in a BCS bowl. They can either win an automatic berth, or they can be selected through an at-large bid. Below, I will list the various ways teams can win automatic berths or receive at-large selections.

Automatic Berths

Auto bids 1-6: Conference Champions
(guaranteed)

Every season there are at least six automatic births into the BCS. The most assured way of receiving an automatic berth is to win one of the six BCS conferences: ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10, or SEC. The conference champion from each of these conferences automatically gets in.

Auto bids 7-8: National Championship Game
(may overlap previous bids)

The teams rated #1 and #2 by the final BCS rankings receive an automatic bid. They will play each other in the BCS National Championship Game. These teams are almost always one of the BCS conference champions and so these automatic bids often overlap with other bids. It is still possible for the #1 and/or #2 teams to be from conferences other than the six BCS conferences, or even for these teams to not have won their conference. In these cases, the automatic bid for #1 and/or #2 are added on to the six for the conference championships.

For example, say Utah is rated #1 at the end of the season and Texas and Oklahoma are rated #2 and #3 respectively. Texas plays in the Big 12 championship game and loses to Nebraska. This pushes Texas out and Oklahoma is now the #2 rated team. Since Utah is not in a BCS conference and Oklahoma did not win their conference, there would be eight auto bids. Utah, Oklahoma, and the six champions. If Texas would have beaten Nebraska, then there would have only been seven auto bids, because Texas would have been both #2 and the Big 12 champion and they’d only receive one bid.

Auto bid 9: Non-BCS Conference Champion
(if a team qualifies, may overlap previous bids)

A championship team from a conference other than the six BCS conferences will get an auto bid if they place #12 or higher in the final BCS poll. If there is no such team, then any non-BCS conference championship team that is #16 or higher and is rated higher than another automatic bid qualifier, then that team will get in.

For example, if BYU is rated #15 and is rated higher than Big East champion Pittsburgh (#20), then BYU would get in as well as Pittsburgh.  Only one automatic bid will be given to teams from non-BCS conferences in any given season. So if BYU is #15 and TCU is #16 in this scenario, only BYU will get the automatic bid.

Auto bid 10: Notre Dame Rule
(if team qualifies, may overlap)

There is also a special rule for Notre Dame. If Notre Dame is rated higher than #8 in the final BCS poll, they receive an automatic bid.

Additional bid: #3 or #4 Allowance
(only if slots remain and if team qualifies)

If the team rated #3 does not already have a bid through a previous rule, then they will receive an automatic bid. If there is no such team, then the same rule is repeated for the team rated #4. If no teams qualify then this is the end of the automatic births.

At-Large Bids

If there are remaining slots after all of the automatic qualifiers, then the bowls will be able to fill in the left over slots with teams from an eligible pool. In order to be in the pool of eligible teams, a team must win at least nine games and be rated in the top 12 of the final BCS rankings.

Example Scenario

BCS Rankings

1. Florida (13-0)
2. Texas (12-1)
3. Penn State (12-1)
4. Oklahoma (11-1)
5. LSU (10-3)
6. USC (11-1)
7. Alabama (10-3)
8. TCU (12-0)
9. Notre Dame (9-3)
10. Ohio State (9-3)
11. Virginia Tech (11-2)
12. Texas Tech (8-4)
13. Michigan (9-3)
14. California (8-4)
15. West Virginia (8-4)
16. Clemson (9-3)

BCS Conference Champions

ACC: Clemson
Big East: West Virginia
Big 10: Penn State
Big 12: Texas
PAC 10: USC
SEC: Florida

Automatic Bids

1. Florida (#1 and SEC)
2. Texas (#2 and Big-12)
3. Clemson (ACC)
4. West Virginia (Big East)
5. Penn State (Big Ten)
6. USC (PAC 10)
7. TCU (non-BCS conference champion above #12)
8. Oklahoma (BCS rated #4 didn’t win conference)

At-Large Eligible

(Only two will be selected.)

LSU
Alabama
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Virginia Tech

Ineligible

Texas Tech (not enough wins)
Michigan (not ranked high enough)
California (not enough wins and not ranked high enough)

Be sure to check out other articles on how the BCS works: BCS Ranking System, and BCS Selection Procedure.