The Bowl Championship Series will add a fifth game after the 2006 regular season, but that additional contest will rotate among the four current BCS bowls, rather than add a new bowl to the mix, the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee recently announced.

Under the plan, there will be four bowls in the BCS arrangement. Each year, one of those bowls will host its regular bowl game and then the national-championship game about a week later.

Though there are still several details to work out, such as what will this additional bowl be called and how will the rotation for the championship game work, those involved in developing the new model say it will provide for more inclusion into the BCS for all institutions that play Division I-A football.

"We believe the model the 11 conferences and Notre Dame are moving forward with is a strong step in the evolution of the BCS," said David Frohnmayer, president of the University of Oregon. "First of all, it continues to create the BCS national championship and allows for better showcasing of that game each season. It also continues to provide exciting match-ups between highly regarded teams in the BCS bowls.

"Secondly, it allows for increased access for all Division I-A institutions and continues to support the traditional bowl system, which has been a tremendous benefit to college football. It also continues the historical relationships of certain conferences and individual bowls, which existed long before the formation of the BCS and which those individual conferences and bowls value highly and wish to preserve."

The additional game was proposed as a means of bringing more parity to a system that has been criticized as being restrictive. Previously, only schools in the six so-called BCS conferences -- the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pacific-10 and Southeastern, and the University of Notre Dame -- could participate in the four BCS bowls (the Rose Bowl, Nokia Sugar Bowl, FedEx Orange Bowl and Tostitos Fiesta Bowl).

This new system will allow schools from the other five Division I-A conferences -- the Mid-American, Mountain West, Sun Belt and Western Athletic Conferences and Conference USA -- to have a shot at a BCS bowl.

"The fifth game in
essence is the national-championships game," said Big 12 Commissioner Kevin Weiberg, who is the incoming BCS coordinator. "What we really have are the four traditional (BCS) bowls being played in each of their respective sites, with the championship game that is separate and distinct.

"It does create additional access points, because there are five bowls and we're not doing the plus-one type approach, where two teams in a playoff-type structure are moving on to a championship game."

Tulane President Scott Cowen, who led the coalition of the five conferences not previously included in the BCS, said he was pleased with the proposed plan.

"I think it's a step in the right direction," he said, adding that the coalition will remain intact and continue to monitor the situation.

Weiberg said the group looked at various models, including adding an existing bowl to the BCS, before ultimately deciding on the system put forth.

"We asked all of the bowls that are currently outside the BCS system if they would have interest in participation, and several of them did come forward and indicate an interest. We also asked for ideas about how they would see their bowl game being integrated into this structure," Weiberg said. "At the same time, we had good feedback from the existing bowls that are part of the BCS arrangement, and heard about their concerns, the challenges going forward from their perspective.

"So I think we've had a lot of information available to us, and we've tried to use that in the best way we can."

The idea of a national playoff system, which would eliminate the possibility of dual national champions as was the case last season, has been rejected by the majority of presidents. They say it would intrude too heavily into the academic calendar.

This new system, proponents say, will have an academic-calendar effect on only a handful of the more than 100 Division I-A schools.

"We actually did a study of the impact of this on existing institutions," said Frohnmayer. "Only 23 institutions would be affected by a game as late as January 9. Thirteen already are affected by a game under the existing structure that's played on January 4. So of more than 100 schools in Division I-A, there are only 10 that are affected any differently than would be under the existing framework."

Also, Frohnmayer said, the new model, unlike a playoff model, would give schools adequate notice of any academic disruption that may occur.

Frohnmayer said the next step in the process is contract negotiations with the Rose Bowl and ABC Sports, after which the BCS will enter negotiations with ABC Sports this fall. That will be followed by discussions among the BCS and the current bowls in the arrangement: the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar Bowls.