In football, the Big East entered competition as a conference in 1991, after inviting five football colleges to become members of the Big East, joining three teams from the Big East whose football teams were competing as Division I independents (Boston College, Pittsburgh and Syracuse) to form a new Division I football league. The strength of this league earned the Big East an automatic berth in the Bowl Championship Series, when that series was created in 1998. The Big East won two national football championships, both by University of Miami. Between 2005 and 2012, four of the more successful football schools left the Big East for other conferences, starting a process that led to a complete realignment of the Big East in 2013.