Projected BCS Rankings 2013: Updated Top 25 BCS Standings Predictions

On the eve of the release of the season's first official BCS standings, upsets ruled the day, as half of the Top 10 teams in last week's simulated BCS standings went down in defeat. The trend, in fact, started Friday night, when Central Florida dumped Louisville.

Five ranked SEC teams also lost, including Top 10 teams LSU and Texas A&M, against conference foes. This fashions an entirely new Top 10, with several unbeaten teams finally breaking through into the top of the standings. All told, there are just 10 unbeaten teams remaining in FBS after Saturday.

But the most surprising development may be Florida State's ascension to No. 2, narrowly edging Oregon. The Seminoles scored an impressive victory at Clemson, which was ranked No. 3 last week. By picking up a considerable number of vote shares, as well as the No. 1 ranking in the computers, FSU should have a razor-thin margin over the Ducks.

Rank	Team	Coaches Poll	Harris Poll	Computers	Pvs
1	Alabama	1	1	2	1
2	Florida State	3	3	1	4
3	Oregon	2	2	3	2
4	Ohio State	4	4	8	5
5	Missouri	7	7	4	13
6	Baylor	5	5	6	10
7	Stanford	6	6	5	11
8	Clemson	9	8	7	3
9	Miami (Fla.)	8	9	10	14
10	UCLA	11	10	9	8
11	LSU	12	12	11	6
12	Texas A&M	10	11	13	7
13	Texas Tech	13	13	19	16
14	South Carolina	14	14	18	12
15	Oklahoma	17	16	15	17
16	Auburn	22	19	12	23
17	Virginia Tech	19	20	16	18
18	Northern Illinois	21	21	17	22
19	Louisville	15	15	25	9
20	Fresno State	18	17	23	19

* Other teams likely to be ranked in Top 25: Oklahoma State, Georgia, Nebraska, Oregon State and Michigan.

Other important observations on the season's first BCS projections:

* Florida State's lead on Oregon might not last very long. With games against UCLA and Stanford coming up, the Ducks will have ample opportunity to regain the vote shares and improve their computer rankings. On the flip side, the Seminoles only have Miami and a damaged Florida team left on the regular-season schedule to help their cause.

* Missouri and Baylor both still have a chance to jump over Ohio State in the coming weeks. With the Buckeyes not getting much help from a mediocre Big Ten, those two upstarts should be able to pick up votes as Ohio State's computer rankings continue to lag behind.

* Northern Illinois now has a chance to close the BCS era as the second non-AQ team to earn back-to-back BCS bowl trips (after TCU in 2009-10). If the Huskies win out, they most likely will earn a BCS bid, as they're on the precipice of being qualified via the Top 16 clause. With Louisville's loss, NIU should be able skip ahead of the Cardinals as well as Fresno State, its main competition for the non-AQ bid.

* The SEC, Pac-12 and ACC likely will claim at-large berths to BCS bowls, with the last spot going to either NIU or Fresno State. If the non-AQs should falter, the last BCS bowl bid likely will fall to the Big 12, unless a Big Ten team upsets Ohio State for the conference title.

Bowl	Matchup
BCS Championship	Alabama vs. Oregon
Rose Bowl	Stanford vs. Ohio State
Orange Bowl	Florida State vs. Central Florida
Sugar Bowl	Missouri vs. Clemson
Fiesta Bowl	Baylor vs. Northern Illinois

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