Beginning in 1998 , four bowl games were declared to be BCS bowls : the Rose Bowl , the Orange Bowl , the Sugar Bowl , and the Fiesta Bowl . Six of the eight available slots for these games were filled by the winners of the Automatic-Qualifying conferences : the Big Ten , the Big East , the Pac-12 , the Southeastern Conference , the Big 12 , and the Atlantic Coast Conference . There was also a clause that allowed Notre Dame , which does not belong to a conference , to play in a BCS game if they were ranked at least eighth nationally at the end of the regular season . From the 1998 season through the 2005 season , the National Championship game rotated among the four BCS bowls . Starting with the 2006 season , a fifth BCS bowl , the BCS National Championship , was added
Big East
Big East Conference (1979–2013)
Plus-One system