The Bowl Championship Series is a system college football uses to determine which teams will play for the Division I national championship.

On March 25, 2009, the U.S. Congress announced plans to examine the system to determine if the BCS system violates antitrust laws.ESPN.com: Congress to Probe BCS Antitrust Issues

In January of 2009, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff announced that he would investigate whether the BCS system has created a monopoly and therefore violates the Sherman Antitrust Act.ESPN.com: Utah Attorney General... BCS May Violate Antitrust Laws BCS coordinator John Swofford contradicted the claims, stating that the "structure of the BCS is within the antitrust laws. Our legal people are comfortable that the BCS structure is."ESPN.com: ACC Commissioner Says BCS Complies with Law

The NCAA actually doesn't award a Division I-A national championship in football. Therefore the national championship has always been more of a mythical notion. For many years, the national championship was decided by two national polls: the writers' poll and the coaches' poll. In most years, the selection in both polls matched. But in the 1980s and early 1990s, there were more and more 'split national champions,' where one poll had one team and the other poll had another. This is how the idea for the BCS came about.

In 1992, five major conferences and Notre Dame created the "Bowl Coalition," the first step towards determining a champion on the field. After a three-year run, this was followed by the "Bowl Alliance" that lasted from 1995 to 1997. The big problem with these systems was the lack of inclusion of the Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences. Both of those conferences joined the others in 1998 to form the BCS.

Unlike other levels of college football, Division I-A does not include a playoff system to help determine the national champion. This has led to an annual controversy regarding the validity of the BCS system. Unlike the NCAA Tournament in college basketball, which is wildly popular, the BCS league commissioners and the university presidents have, to this point, refused to establish any type of playoff system.

• 2007: LSU
• 2006: Florida
• 2005: Texas
• 2004: USC
• 2003: LSU
• 2002: Ohio State
• 2001: Miami FL
• 2000: Oklahoma
• 1999: Florida State
• 1998: Tennessee