The BCS National Championship Game or BCS title game is the final bowl game of the annual Bowl Championship Series and is intended by Series organizers to determine the NCAA Division I-A national football championship. The game was first played at the conclusion of the 1998 College Football season after the Big Ten and Pac 10 conferences and the Rose Bowl Game joined the members of the former "żBowl Alliance" to form the Bowl Championship Series. The Bowl Alliance and its predecessor, the Bowl Coalition, featured championship games from 1992 through 1997.
Since the formation of the Bowl Championship Series, there have been several controversies regarding the formula used for selecting the participating teams. Most notably, following the 2003 season, the BCS ranking system excluded Associated Press No. 1 University of Southern California from the BCS Championship Game (The Nokia Sugar Bowl). The following season, in 2004, an undefeated Auburn team was left out of the BCS Championship Game (The FedEX Orange Bowl).
