The BCS Poll used a sytem to determine the rankings of college football teams using two human polls and several computer polls.  From 1998 to 2004 the AP Poll was used as one of the human polls but was replaced with the Harris Poll in 2005.  The Coaches' Poll is the other poll used.  This poll reflected, by agreement, the number one team at the end of the year in the BCS Poll.  The computer polls were averaged into the total and the methods of the computer polls varied with year to year.

BCS rankings were released for the first time each year towards the end of September or beginning of October and there was no "final" poll released since the Coaches' Poll took care of that.