More details on BCS Conference Qualification

One of the new provisions in the new BCS deal was for conferences who are not contractually bound to a BCS bowl to be able to earn their way to automatic qualification status.  BCSFootball.org has finally posted more details about the process.  This process is only valid for the following conferences: Big East, Conference USA, Mid American, Mountain West, Sun Belt, and Western Athletic.  The other 5 conferences are contractually tied to a BCS bowl and as a result can not ever lose their bid (while the contract is in existance). The Rules stipulate that each year there will be between 5 and 7 automatic bids.  To earn an automatic bid for a period of 2 years beginning in the 2008-09 bowl season conferences must meet the following standards:

1. Be in the top 6 of average BCS Standing rank of your highest ranked team.
2. Be in the top 6 of overall average conference strength (it is believed this measure will be an average of the CPU rankings used in the BCS standings for all conference member teams)
3. Be "similar" to the other automatic qualifier conferences in terms of number and ranking of teams in the final BCS standings.
4. OR Win an appeal.

For the first rating period the 2004-2007 seasons will be used.  After that the ratings will come every two years.  The rumor is that the #3 criterion will use a points system rating all teams in the top 25 and giving bonus points for teams in the top 12, with a modifier for conference size, to be similar a team would have to have 50% of the points of the highest rated team.  Inside the Bleachers has contacted BCSFootball.org for confirmation, but much like the system, the email server at BCSFootball.org appears to be broken. Using this system at present it seems highly likely, barring a successful appeal that the Big East will be removed from the BCS automatic qualification status for the 2008-09 season, primarily due to a failure in the 3rd standard.  Also given that criteria, it is unlikely we'll ever have a 7th team earn an automatic bid, as it would take an appeal (or a lot of ties for 6th).