When you think back to the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) on television I’m sure ESPN, and by extension ABC, are the networks that immediately pop into your mind. During negotiations early in the 2000’s ABC became “unhappy with the new structure” which saw the BCS expand to 5 games instead of 4 going into effect for the 2006 season.

As such, Fox ended up swooping in and winning the BCS television package rights for 2006-09 in one of the more strange setups in recent college football. Remember, this was a time before Fox had a steady presence in college football. Prior to 2007, the Fox network had televised the Cotton Bowl for the past 8 seasons but was largely limited to regional telecasts distributed through their Fox Sports Network (FSN) packages.

So when it was announced in November 2004 that Fox had won the BCS rights for 4 seasons totaling $320 million it was met with a lot of skepticism and surprise.

It was also a bit of a weird set up, too. For one, the Rose Bowl had to remain extra super duper special and was not part of the negotiations process as those games remained on ABC. This included all 4 of the Rose Bowl Games played from 2006-09 (the 2006 Rose Bowl was the last with Keith Jackson on the call) as well the 2010 BCS National Championship Game (crowning the winner of the 2009 season) which aired on ABC because it was played at the Rose Bowl.

Below is a full list of all these BCS games on Fox:

2006

Fiesta Bowl
Boise State 43-42 over Oklahoma

Orange Bowl
Louisville 24-13 over Wake Forest

Sugar Bowl 
LSU 41-14 over Notre Dame

BCS National Championship
Florida 41-14 over Ohio State

Fox couldn’t have dreamed for a better game for their first BCS broadcast. Everyone and their mother remembers the epic overtime upset by Boise State in a thriller over Oklahoma. It’s one of the best games of my lifetime, and despite being the first aired, goes down as the classic Fox broadcast from this era.

Now that Dave Clawson feels like he’s been at Wake Forest for such a long time, this Jim Grobe-led Demon Deacons team making the Orange Bowl truly seems like it was pre-internet age. This was Louisville’s last season in the Big East and they really should’ve been playing at the Power 5 level with a very talented team.

I’m not sure I remember this year’s Sugar Bowl. Huh, weird.

The first standalone BCS National Championship Game featured Florida and Ohio State facing each other for the first time ever. The no. 1 Buckeyes were undefeated and favored by 7 points. Ted Ginn, Jr. took the opening kickoff to the house, too. This game was super hyped but Urban Meyer truly announced his arrival on the national stage as the Gators finished the game outscoring OSU 41-7 for an easy win.

2007

Sugar Bowl
Georgia 41-10 over Hawaii

Fiesta Bowl
West Virginia 48-28 over Oklahoma

Orange Bowl
Kansas 24-21 over Virginia Tech

BCS National Championship
LSU 38-24 over Ohio State

This Fox postseason led off with black-clad Georgia led by quarterback Matthew Stafford absolutely destroying then undefeated Hawaii in New Orleans. The Warriors turned it over 8(!) times and quarterback Colt Brennan (RIP) never had a chance.

West Virginia was a hot pick to win the National Championship but tripped up twice, including in their regular season finale against Pittsburgh. Their high-flying rushing offense would trounce Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl led by a young Sam Bradford.

Kansas in a major bowl game and winning a major bowl game!?? It feels like a typo. The Jayhawks would win 13 games over the next 2 seasons of the Mark Mangino era and have not won more than 3 games in a single season since.

The 2nd National Championship Game on Fox brought us rumors of Les Miles heading to Michigan and instead he stayed for 2007 and beyond as the Tigers of LSU were the first 2-loss title winners since 1960. The 2007 season was WILD.

2008

Orange Bowl
Virginia Tech 20-7 over Cincinnati

Sugar Bowl
Utah 31-17 over Alabama

Fiesta Bowl
Texas 24-21 over Ohio State

BCS National Championship
Florida 24-14 over Oklahoma

The first BCS Fox game of the 2008 season was Virginia Tech beating Cincinnati led by this Brian Kelly guy as coach. This remains the Hokies last major bowl victory and their only one since 1995.

The Sugar Bowl saw undefeated Utah upset 10-point favorite Alabama after jumping out to a 21-0 1st quarter in one of the original aught’s “didn’t want to be there” performances coming off the clash of titans loss in the SEC Championship against Florida. It worked out well for Utah who parlayed this into a National Championship, no wait, their season ended unbeaten and 2nd in the final AP Poll.

Texas was co-division champs (remember divisions in the Big 12?) with Oklahoma but the Sooners won the tie-breaker despite Texas beating Oklahoma in the regular season. The Horns would beat Ohio State (who lost the Big Ten co-championship tie-breaker to Penn State) on a last-second slant touchdown pass from Colt McCoy that broke for the game-winner.

The BCS National Championship saw Florida pull away late in this Tim Tebow “The Promise” season getting past Sam Bradford and Oklahoma. Bradford would later drown his tears with a $78 million rookie contract including $50 million guaranteed as the last No. 1 overall pick before the NFLPA restructured the NFL Draft pay scale.

2009

Sugar Bowl
Florida 51-24 over Cincinnati

Fiesta Bowl
Boise State 17-10 over TCU

Orange Bowl
Iowa 24-14 over Georgia Tech

January 1, 2010 saw Cincinnati in their second-straight major bowl game except Brian Kelly had been at Notre Dame 21 days earlier and avoided this big old beatdown in Tim Tebow’s final collegiate game.

If you recall, this was the post-season with 5 undefeated teams which brought us the WAC vs. Mountain West matchup between Boise State and Texas Christian. The Broncos led 10-0 until late in the 2nd half and TCU came back to tie the game before a 4th quarter Doug Martin touchdown won it for Boise.

Georgia Tech in a BCS game with Kansas doing it just a few years prior. Truly, all things are possible. That triple option for the Yellow Jackets laid a stink bomb with 2 completions and only 143 rushing yards. If it wasn’t Iowa, it could’ve been a 40-point win.