Consider the Oregon Ducks resurrected.

Chip Kelly's first season as a head coach couldn't have started any worse. His Ducks got shown up by the Broncos on national TV and he was forced to dismiss his star running back for the rest of the season the following day.

And then Chip Kelly cemented his candidacy as National Coach Of The Year two months later on Halloween night as his Ducks dominated the mighty USC Trojans while the nation looked on in disbelief.

And then the debate began. Should the Ducks jump past the team that beat them in the polls?

Of course not.

While there is no doubt Oregon is a great team and much improved since the season opener, there is also no justification for placing them in front of the team that beat them and has yet to drop a game since.

Yet many people forget that the Broncos have gotten better since that game as well. Anyone who watched the game knows they looked very sloppy, leaving a bunch of points on the field, committing some bad penalties, and turning the ball over three times.

Yet they still found a way to beat a very good Oregon team who still had their bruising running back, and have only gotten better and more efficient as the season has progressed.

The Oregon camp will argue that their body of work is far better than Boise State's, which is true. Which begs the question, when does body of work outweigh the head-to-head result?

The results of head-to-head matchups obviously are not the only thing to take into consideration when ranking teams, or else Washington would be ranked ahead of USC.

But then Washington went on to lose four out of their next five games, proving their win over USC was indeed an upset.

On the other hand, Boise State is still undefeated. And while they admittedly have not played the best teams in the country, they have yet to lose. Which means that there exists no circular reasoning (Team A beat Team B who beat Team C...) that could prove any team's superiority to the Broncos.

So while there are plenty of opinions that many teams could beat Boise State, there is no on-field results that could support those opinions.

And so for now, the head-to-head result does outweigh Oregon's body of work until someone proves the Broncos are beatable.

Otherwise, what is the point of playing the game? If Oregon wins, everyone knows Boise State was overrated. If Boise State wins, it was a fluke and shouldn't have any bearing on the national picture.

Those demanding the Broncos play more BCS teams sure aren't giving them any incentive to do so.

In a sport where so much is decided on the hypothetical, shouldn't we take any chance we have to base rankings on the on-field product?

Check out Fletcher Johnson's article about why Oregon should be ranked ahead of Boise State.