BCS Standings: Twitter Erupts with Swift Reactions to Season's First Rankings

The first batch of BCS rankings were released Sunday night, marking the official beginning of this year's championship chase.

Every game matters, but now teams know exactly where they stand in the pecking order. With the season halfway through, games take on a different meaning from now until the beginning of December.

Let's take a look at the rankings, highlight a few of Sunday's surprises and gather some reaction from the Twitter universe.

Week 8 BCS Rankings

Rank	Team
1	Alabama
2	Florida
3	Oregon
4	Kansas State
5	Notre Dame
6	LSU
7	South Carolina
8	Oregon State
9	Oklahoma
10	USC
11	Georgia
12	Mississippi State
13	West Virginia
14	Florida State
15	Rutgers
16	Louisville
17	Texas Tech
18	Texas A&M
19	Clemson
20	Stanford
21	Cincinnati
22	Boise State
23	TCU
24	Iowa State
25	Texas

Surprises

Oregon

The Ducks were expected to come in at No. 2 but got leapfrogged by the Florida Gators.

Oregon hasn't necessarily beaten any big names, but it will have its chance. Beating USC would almost guarantee an undefeated season.

These rankings are sure to change at least a few times. Florida's SEC schedule makes it very unlikely that it will remain in the No. 2 slot.

It appears that Oregon was slighted here, despite its weak early schedule.

Mississippi State

The Bulldogs come in at No. 12, putting the SEC's dominance on full display. However, unlike the other SEC squads, they don't deserve these initial accolades.

Beating Tennessee isn't really anything to hang your hat on, but that's Mississippi State's biggest win so far this season. The Bulldogs will have a chance to change that against Alabama next week.

If they beat the Crimson Tide, the Bulldogs deserve to climb in a big way. Until then, there's little to prove that they deserve a top-15 rank to begin the BCS season.

For those who believe that the system favors the SEC, chalk another one up to your side of the debate.

Twitter Reaction

The SEC's head of public relations, Charles Bloom, gave us an interesting tidbit regarding his conference:

"

#An SEC team has had the top spot in the #BCS rankings 10 straight times, dating back to the Nov. 28, 2010 release.

— Charles Bloom (@SECPRGuy) October 15, 2012"

The Big 12 is happy with its initial group of Top 25 teams:

"

#Big12 FB: In the first #BCS Standings of the 2012 season, the Big 12 is tied with a nation-leading seven teams in the top 25.

— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) October 15, 2012"

98.7 The Fan radio host Dave Weekley noticed the absence of a familiar face:

"

Wow, missed the memo that the Big 10 had withdrawn from the BCS.No Big 10 teams in the first batch of Top 25 #BCS ratings -- amazing.

— Dave Weekley(@weekley) October 15, 2012"

Kansas City Star reporter Yael Abouhalkah offers some insight for Kansas State Wildcats fans:

"

KSU No. 4 in #bcs. If USC beats Oregon and alabama beats florida, KSU in national title game. #easyaspie

— Yael T. Abouhalkah (@YaelTAbouhalkah) October 15, 2012"

ESPN College Football offers some insight on Oregon's mysterious No. 3 slot, courtesy of Kirk Herbstreit:

"

Herbie: "I believe when it comes to the polls [& voting], half the people have no idea between #Oregon & #OSU.. it'll work itself out."

— ESPN CollegeFootball (@ESPNCFB) October 15, 2012"

Chicago Tribune reporter Brian Hamilton offered some interesting insight from ESPN analyst Jesse Palmer regarding Notre Dame's future:

"

Jesse Palmer on #BCS Countdown: "#NotreDame won't finish undefeated if Everett Golson keeps playing quarterback."

— Brian Hamilton (@ChiTribHamilton) October 15, 2012"

The BCS' Every Game Counts feed reported some interesting information regarding how these initial rankings usually shake out:

"

In 14 prev #BCS yrs, the team ranked #1 in first #BCS has gone to champ gm seven times: FSU '99, OK '03, USC '04-'15, OSU '06-'07 LSU '11

— Every Game Counts (@EveryGameCounts) October 15, 2012"

Alabama is ranked No. 1, but Nick Saban appears to take that with a grain of salt according to this quote on SportsCenter's feed:

"

Nick Saban on picking #BCS, "The only predictable thing about college football is that it's unpredictable.So good luck to all of you."

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 15, 2012"

Sporting News writer Steve Greenberg supplies what I hope is sarcasm:

"

Sure, I can see why West Virginia is four spots higher than the Texas Tech team that kicked its behind by 35 and has the same 5-1 record.

— Steve Greenberg (@SN_Greenberg) October 15, 2012"

We've seen Notre Dame's program re-emerge this season, but Irish Illustrated speaks to the magnitude of its initial BCS ranking:

"

Notre Dame opens the BCS rankings at No. 5, first time the Irish have been that high in six years. Computers had Irish at No. 2.

— Irish Illustrated (@NDatRivals) October 15, 2012"

Keith Murphy, sports anchor at WHO-HD13, gives us some info about this year's most unlikely BCS candidate:

"

Iowa State is the only team in this week's BCS top 25 making its first ever appearance. The BCS rankings started in 1998.

— Keith Murphy (@MurphyKeith) October 15, 2012"