how does the bowl selection process work? do they choose based on overall record or conference record?

Question

for example, in the big ten michigan has more conference wins than wisconsin but wisconsin has more overall wins. who goes to the better bowl?

Answer 1

Go to the BCS website http://bcsfootball.org/bcsfb and click on Selection Procedures.

Answer 2

There are several things that factor in for what teams receive a bowl bid...overall record, computer rankings, conference record, head to head match-ups with certain teams, regional draws (who will bring the best crowds to the bowl city), how recent has a certain team been invited to a certain bowl, etc. Bowls generally like to "spread the wealth" around and not take the same team year after year. And some bowls like to keep the traditional conference match-ups in place...for instance, unless the Rose Bowl is the NC game, they will ALWAYS take the Pac-10 vs. Big 10 match-up if at all possible. And most bowls would take a lesser team (by victories) over a team with a better won/loss record if they were regional. For instance, take the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta...they would take say a 7-5 South Carolina team over an 8-4 or even a 9-3 Washington team because South Carolina is closer and would probably generate more "local" interest in Atlanta, South Carolina fans would travel the shorter distance in greater numbers, therefore spending more money in Atlanta.

So there are MANY things that go into what team plays in what bowl besides just records!!

Answer 3

BCS stands for B(roken) C(omputer) S(ystem). It has never worked...never will work.
Part of the problem is that the computer nerds who feed the data are a little selective about what data they input......consider Hawaii being in the top ten. No offense to the 50th state, but they don't play anybody that impressive....the last time they did, it was against USC, and their own coach, when asked what he planned to do in playing the Trojans, said he was considering asking the stadium to install a third number box on the scoreboard, in case USC scored more than 99 points.
USC lost 11 out of 22 starters in three games to injuries, but when they lost to Stanford, which was embarrassing, I'll admit, they dropped all the way out of the top ten, to about 16 or 17. Ohio State lost to an unranked team and only lost four places. There's no consistency, but enough prejudice to last the rest of the season.

Answer 4

Most bowls have tie-ins with conferences.... that take effect after the BCS selects.

Most conference standings are decided by conference games. so Michigan would be the higher ranked in your example.

But Illinois would get the nod over Michigan with tied conference and better overall

Answer 5

im pretty sure the people sit on their fat a**es at their office and input all the teams stats/scores/wins into a big computer and it computes all the stats and gives the bowls out to teams.