BCS Qualification Criteria By Conference and Year

2009

Conference	Criteria 1	Criteria 2	Criteria 3
SOUTHEASTERN	1	1	11
BIG EAST	3	2	10
PAC-10	7	3	9
BIG 12	2	4	6
ATLANTIC COAST	9	5	6
BIG TEN	8	6	10.125
MOUNTAIN WEST	4	7	8.75
I-A INDEPENDENTS	26	8
WESTERN ATHLETIC	6	9	5
CONFERENCE USA	26	10
SUN BELT	26	11
MID-AMERICAN	26	12

2008

Conference	Criteria 1	Criteria 2	Criteria 3
ATLANTIC COAST	14	1	4
BIG 12	1	2	14
BIG EAST	12	3	5
SOUTHEASTERN	2	4	11
BIG TEN	8	5	10.125
MOUNTAIN WEST	6	6	11.25
PAC-10	5	7	6.75
I-A INDEPENDENTS	26	8
WESTERN ATHLETIC	9	9	3.75
MID-AMERICAN	22	10	1
CONFERENCE USA	26	11
SUN BELT	26	12

2007

Conference	Criteria 1	Criteria 2	Criteria 3
SOUTHEASTERN	2	1	14
BIG EAST	9	2	7.5
ATLANTIC COAST	3	3	9
PAC-10	7	4	6.75
BIG TEN	1	5	9
BIG 12	4	6	12
MOUNTAIN WEST	17	7	2.5
I-A INDEPENDENTS	26	8
SUN BELT	26	9
CONFERENCE USA	26	10
WESTERN ATHLETIC	10	11	5
MID-AMERICAN	26	12

2006

Conference	Criteria 1	Criteria 2	Criteria 3
SOUTHEASTERN	2	1	16
PAC-10	5	2	9
BIG EAST	6	3	10
BIG TEN	1	4	12.375
ATLANTIC COAST	14	5	5
BIG 12	10	6	6
I-A INDEPENDENTS	11	7	3.75
MOUNTAIN WEST	20	8	1.25
WESTERN ATHLETIC	8	9	3.75
SUN BELT	26	10
CONFERENCE USA	26	11
MID-AMERICAN	26	12

2005

Conference	Criteria 1	Criteria 2	Criteria 3
BIG 12	26	1
ATLANTIC COAST	26	2
BIG TEN	26	3
SOUTHEASTERN	26	4
PAC-10	26	5
I-A INDEPENDENTS	26	6
MOUNTAIN WEST	26	7
BIG EAST	26	8
WESTERN ATHLETIC	26	9
CONFERENCE USA	26	10
MID-AMERICAN	26	11
SUN BELT	26	12

• Criteria 1 is the top ranked team in the final BCS standings.
• Criteria 2 is the final regular season ranking by all teams in the conference in BCS computer polls. I've cheated a little and just used the Colley Matrix here. The rating is the simple mean of the rankings of all teams in the conference. (The BCS is vague on this criteria, making it easy to manufacture alternate statistics to meet the desired need.
• Criteria 3 is the ranking of teams in the top 25 of final regular season BCS standings. The rankings are divided in to tiers with more credit given to teams in the top ranked tiers. There is also an adjustment based on conference size. The number shown here is the adjusted points value.

For automatic inclusion, a conference needs to be in the top 6 of category 1 and 2 and at least 50% of the top value in category 3. These are colored in green.

There is also a 'waiver' process for teams in the top 7 in 1 or 2 (and top 5 in the other) as well as 33% of the top value in 3. In the tables, any conference in the top 7 (or meeting the 33% criteria) is coded yellow.