So what is next, after the BCS?

The 16-year era of the Bowl Championship Series ended Monday night in the Rose Bowl.

There were fireworks and a trophy presentation and then someone turned out the lights on a colorful, and controversial, chapter of college football.

The Rose Bowl hosted two games this season, the Rose Bowl and the BCS title game, but those days are over.

Next year, the four-team College Football Playoff replaces the BCS system.

Here’s how it will work:

Instead of using a standing formula to determine the top two teams, a 13-member committee will select and seed the top four teams.

Replacing the BCS standings, the selection committee will release four sets of standings prior to the final announcement.

Instead of four major bowls, there will now be six, with the Cotton and Chick-fil-A bowls joining the rotation.

These six bowls will rotate the semifinal games each season.

The semifinals will be played either on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.

The Rose and Sugar bowls will always be on Jan. 1 and will host the first semifinal games next season.

The next season, the Orange and Cotton bowls will host the semifinal games on Dec. 31, 2015, with the Chick-fil-A and Fiesta bowls hosting the semis on Dec. 31, 2016.

In years when the Rose Bowl is not a semifinal, it will be a traditional game featuring the Pac-12 and Big Ten champion, unless one, or both, teams finish in the top four.

In that case, the Rose Bowl will choose a replacement school from the conference. It no longer has to take a school from an outside league.

The title game is now up for an annual, Super Bowl-type bidding. Any of the six major bowls can bid for a title game in years when they are not hosting a semifinal.

The first three title game sites have already been awarded.

AT&T; Stadium in Arlington, Texas, with a capacity of more than 100,000 including standing room, will host the first title game on Jan. 12, 2015.

The title games of 2016 and 2017 were recently awarded to the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla.

The Rose Bowl did not submit a bid for the first three title games but could for future dates.

Also, in the new College Football Playoff, there will no longer be automatic berths granted to teams meeting a certain rankings threshold.

Moving forward, there will be five contract conferences -- Big Ten, Pac-12, Big 12, Atlantic Coast and Southeastern. The highest ranked champion of the remaining conferences, the so-called “Group of Five,” will receive a bid to one of the six major bowls. That champion will be determined by the selection committee.

--

chris.dufresne@latimes.com

--

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

--

Title sites

First three championship sites for the new College Football Playoff:

2015: AT&T; Stadium, Arlington, Texas.

2016: University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Ariz.

2017: Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Fla.