A Brief History: How the College Football Playoff Began

— -- The College Football Playoff was created to try and put an end to the convoluted systems of naming a champion that plagued the sport for over a century.

Believe it or not, Division I college football is the only sport the NCAA does not award a championship to, which has led to outside forces taking matters into their own hands. For decades, the champion was determined by the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll, which led to many years of dual champions.

Then in 1997, the six biggest conferences joined forces to create the Bowl Championship Series, or BCS. Using a complex equation, it pitted the top two teams against each other in a championship game. The winner of the game was recognized as champions by the Coaches Poll, but the AP Poll did not always agree.

In 2014, the college football playoff was born and unlike the BCS, no polls or computer rankings are used. Instead, a 13 member committee, which includes former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is used to pick the four playoff teams on selection day.

The new format seems to be a winner with over 30 million Americans watching the championship game last season, and an even bigger audience expected for this season’s championship.