This is a continuing look at what my design would look like for this year and will walk backwards one year per week, until the dawn of the BCS era. For other years and a better look at my design look here.

Qualifying teams

Top Group: Ohio St., Florida and Michigan would have qualified as the top group of teams.
Undefeated: #8 Boise St. would have qualified as an undefeated team.

Tournament

Ohio St. would have hosted Boise St. in the Rose Bowl and Florida would have hosted Michigan in a Wild Card Game. The winners would advance to the National Championship Game.

Possible BCS Bowls

Sugar: LSU vs. Notre Dame
Fiesta: USC vs. Oklahoma
Orange: Louisville vs. Wake Forest

Teams in bold would have been tied to that berth, italics indicate a BCS berth would have been guaranteed.  West Auburn, Arkansas and West Virginia would have been eligible for BCS bowls. Only one of LSU, Auburn or Arkansas could have been eligible.

What actually happened and a tier based plus one next.

What actually happened

BCS Games

NCG: Florida 41 Ohio St. 14
Rose: USC 32 Michigan 18
Sugar: LSU 41 Notre Dame 14
Orange: Louisville 24 Wake Forest 13
Fiesta Bowl: Boise St. 43, Oklahoma 42(OT)

West Virginia was BCS eligible but not selected.

Controversy

Much of the season was spent wondering is the NCG would be an Ohio St. vs. Michigan rematch. Florida barely passed Michigan after two weeks of idle weeks by the Wolverines and a large swing in the human votes. The fact that Ohio St. and Michigan both lost decisive bowl games suggested to many that the rankings are far from perfect.

Boise St won the Fiesta Bowl in historic fashion in one of the most memorable BCS games in BCS history. This, and the Ohio St. loss, left Boise St. as the only undefeated team in 2006.

No team was left out for a lower ranked option, though several teams were left out for lower ranked teams due to the limit of two teams per conference.

A Tier Based Plus-One

Ohio St. would have played LSU and Florida would have played Michigan in the semifinal games. USC and Louisville would have earned direct participation to the Rose and Orange Bowls respectively. (Guaranteeing access to undefeated teams would have replaced LSU with Boise St.)

Boise St. (or LSU), Oklahoma and Wake Forest would have been guaranteed a spot in the first round games. Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Rutgers, BYU and TCU would have been eligible for a second bowl game.

[Editor's Note: I am in the process of updating my data to use 9 wins over FBS teams for eligibility.  This eligibility list reflects the original criteria of 10-2 or better. Once the data has been updated this post will be updated and these notes removed]

Possible first round games:

[Editor's note: This season is one of several that strongly motivated me to implement the rule change as not enough teams are available to fill the slots with the original rule]

Mid-West: Oklahoma vs. Notre Dame
North: Wisconsin vs. Rutgers
South: Wake Forest(LSU) vs. TCU
West Coast: Boise St.(Wake Forest) vs. BYU

An improvement?

With the guarantees for undefeated teams Boise St. would have been given a shot at the title. The close call between Michigan and Florida would not have been critical. The gap between Michigan and LSU was very large and the gap between LSU and USC was not small, greatly enhancing the cutoff controversy compared with the Michigan Florida gap.

The Orange and Sugar Bowls would not have been altered in my tournament design.

We would have likely missed out on one of the most memorable games in BCS history in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl.