College Football structure - how does it work?

Question

I've been a British fan of the NFL for 20 years and fully understand the conferences, divisions, and play off qualification structure. I'm trying to get into college football but am totally confused by the various leagues, divisions, bowls (eg; gator, sugar, outback??) and how a team qualifies for the college equivalent of the Superbowl. I've looked at www.ncaafootball.com but it assumes basic knowledge such as this is already known. Can anyone explain or point me in the right direction please.

Answer 1

There are about 130 division 1 college teams in the US. The historic path of college football created a lot of traditions that created most of the bowls that are played today. The sports media in the past would vote on who was number 1 team. Coaches do not want a play off because of the amount of games after the season that would have to be played. American college football takes a lot of time just to get teams to games and play them. The players are going to school it interrupts classes and creates problems there. So dont try to understand it just watch the best games that game officials try to create which most games are just fun to watch. The BCS system tries to create a true national champion

Answer 2

I to have been following the game here in britain for 20 plus years. College football is played in various confrences. The top 2 teams play in a championship game the winner wins the conference. However the end of season bowl games are decided by the AP poll. The bowl games are picked by the game organisers and the colleges get paid to play in them. Then there are the bcs games that are played by the top 8 teams in the AP rankings. The top two play in the championship game and the winner are crowned national Champions.

Answer 3

Not a simple question to answer, but here's a site with good information:
http://www.bcsfootball.org/bcsfb/eligibility

That site explains only the 'BCS', or top bowls however. There are 32 total bowl games.

Wikipedia also has an article with a brief description of how the teams are selected:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_football_bowl_games%2C_2006-07

Answer 4

The BCS (Bowl Championship sequence) is a panel that ranks the communities. on the tip of the customary season, communities with comparable rankings (i.e. a million and a pair of for 'championship' interest) play one yet another in bowl video games. there's no adventure even nonetheless and this technique is unique to varsity soccer.