Major Schools, Major Bowls, and Major Selectors | College Football at Sports-Reference.com

What is a Major School?

Our college football game scores are provided by James Howell, and we are relying on his expertise when we classify a school as a "major" program. Here is Mr. Howell's description of the process he used to classify schools:

"In general, if a school was part of an FBS-equivalent conference, or if a school played a majority of their games against other rated schools, then I included them. If the number of games was 50%, then I made a judgment call (usually based on the year before and after). Sometimes, a school played fewer games against other rated schools, but I included them to avoid 'holes' in the data. At times there were just plain subjective decisions. In the very early years it was a little more esoteric. In deciding who to include it was as much art as science."

What is a Major Bowl?

A major bowl is defined to be a bowl game in which at least one of the participants is considered to be a major school.

What is a Major Selector?

A major selector is a selector whose national champion is used to determine the consensus national champion. The major selectors used on this site are:

• National Championship Foundation (1869-1935)
• Helms Athletic Foundation (1883-1935)
• Associated Press (1936-present)
• United Press International (1950-1995)
• Football Writer's Association of America (1954-present)
• National Football Foundation (1959-present)
• USA Today/CNN (1982-1996)
• USA Today/ESPN (1997-2004)
• USA Today (2005-present)