COLLEGE FOOTBALL An ongoing process: BCS revamped again

More emphasis will be placed on the polls this season.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
There will be fewer numbers to crunch in the revamped version of the Bowl Championship Series formula.
The big question remains whether those numbers will produce better results for one of the few major sports that determines its champion without a postseason tournament.
The Associated Press poll will count for one-third of each team's ranking under the new formula BCS officials unveiled Thursday in their latest attempt to find a simpler, more equitable way to come up with a 1 vs. 2 matchup in the college football title game.
Familiar line
Of course, in describing the new formula, BCS chairman Kevin Weiberg issued the same caveat that has existed throughout the six seasons of this system.
"There is not a perfect tool out there in this system that will eliminate all controversy," said Weiberg, the Big 12 commissioner who took over as BCS chairman this year.
Under the new formula, which goes into effect this season, the AP writers' poll, the coaches' poll and a combination of computer rankings will each count for one-third of a team's overall BCS ranking.
Strength of schedule, team record and quality wins, three components used under the old system, have all been eliminated, the thought being that all are already factored into the computer rankings. In the past, results from the AP and coaches' polls were averaged, then factored in with the other components -- a formula that lessened the significance of the polls.
In three of the last four seasons, there have been at least three teams with legitimate claims for the two spots in the BCS title game.
For example
Last year resulted in a split national championship, with LSU winning the BCS title game over Oklahoma and Southern California protecting its top ranking in the AP poll by defeating Michigan in the Rose Bowl. USC was left out of the BCS title game despite being ranked first in both polls going into bowl season.
Coaches who vote in the USA Today-ESPN poll are obligated to name the winner of the BCS title game the national champion. Writers in the AP poll are under no such obligation.
BCS officials hired mathematicians from The Art and Science Group, based in Baltimore, to help come up with a new formula that would give them a better chance at ensuring there would be no repeat of last season. Weiberg portrayed this as a total makeover of a system that had been tweaked slightly several times since it went into effect in 1998.
The new formula will no longer average the weekly rank of each team. Instead, teams will be evaluated on the number of voting points they receive in each poll. A team's score in the AP poll will be divided by 1,625, which is the maximum any team can receive. A team's score in the coaches' poll will be divided by 1,525.
The final component will come from six computer rankings. A team's highest and lowest computer ranking will be thrown out and the other four will be used to determine a figure to add to those from the two polls. The New York Times computer rankings will not be used this year due to the newspaper's decision not to participate.