The college football betting system has often been criticized for its sporadic lines during the bowl game season. Known as the playoffs in every other sport, the bowl system works on the premise that teams that win six or more games during the regular season, automatically qualify for one of the 38 different bowl games on the season. As your bookie software sites will indicate, the teams with the best records will receive the better bowl games, as they are seen as the most deserving teams. Today we’ll look at how the bowls are determined.

The BCS National Title game, features the first and second place teams at the end of the regular season. Since the BCS was created in 1998, the SEC has dominated the National Title game, as four of the last five National Champions have actually come from the conference. This year will be the fifth time in six years that the achievement has happened, as the NCAA allowed two NFL caliber teams, the LSU Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide to face in the game. Both LSU and Alabama are from the SEC, which has left many fans and schools alike outraged that the NCAA would allow two teams from the same conference to face each other in such an important game.

For the 2011 – 12 season, the Orange Bowl became the second most important college bowl game, as teams ranked third and fourth in the nation faced off. In last night’s thrilling affair, the third ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys took on the fourth ranked Stanford Cardinals. For all intents and purposes, many people would argue that it should have been Alabama verses Stanford and Oklahoma State verses LSU, as that would have allowed a team outside the SEC to contend for the National Championship.