BCS Rankings 2010: Who Is Too High, Who Is Too Low?
At long last, college football fans have been graced with the initial 2010 BCS Rankings. As luck would have it, they come on the heels of a Saturday that saw the rise and fall of several prominent teams, including yet another No. 1.
Now that we have these rankings, it's time to start picking them apart. And this starts, naturally, with weeding out the apparent discrepancies. After all, we know better than those blasted computers.
In other words, we must ask who is too high and who is too low?
Click "Start Slideshow," and let the bitching commence!
Too High: No. 18 Arizona
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Ever since they manhandled the Hawkeyes in their third game of the season, the Wildcats have become something of the darling of the Pac-10. And credit where credit's due, they're a good team, and it's nice to see them enjoying success after recent years of mediocrity.
That being said, they're probably the fourth best team in the Pac-10. Oregon and Stanford are obviously superior, and USC showed us this past weekend that they're still very good.
Moreover, look at Arizona's schedule to this point. Sure they beat Iowa, which is no small feat. But they barely beat the Cal Bears, the Pac-10's very own Jekyll-and-Hide, and lost to an Oregon State team that has failed to miserably to live up to expectations.
And worse, Nick Foles is probably going to be out several weeks with a knee injury. It's hard to replace talent like his.
Too High: No. 17 Florida State
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Did somebody forget to tell the computers that they no longer need to pay their respects to Bobby Bowden?
Sure, placing them at No.17 pretty much makes them irrelevant in the National Title chase, but the fact that they're even in the picture at all is absurd.
The Seminoles basically have one good win to their credit, a 45-17 stomping of Miami on the Hurricanes' own turf. Hats off for that. For the record, Miami is well on its way to dropping from the top 25 after starting the season in the No. 13 slot.
The good news is that this is probably as high as Florida State is going to get. The ACC just isn't all that strong this year, and the Seminoles are not scheduled to a face a ranked opponent the rest of the way. That will be good for their record, but not for their reputation.
Too High: No. 9 Utah
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With all respect to TCU, whose No. 5 BCS ranking seems to be very fair, it just seems odd having two Mountain West teams in the hunt for the National Championship.
As always, you have to look to the schedule. The Utes have only one win over a ranked team. That came in their first game over then-No. 15 Pittsburgh, which has since fallen out of the Top 25. And while they deserve credit for scoring 30 or more points in every game since, they are more than likely due for a reality check when they face TCU early in November.
The Mountain West's time may come, but this current level of success is just too good to be true. Utah will be on its way to a major conference next year, however, so the chances to silence its critics (hello!) will come fast and furious.
Too High: No. 6 LSU
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How the hell is LSU undefeated, much less in the BCS top 10?
It seems like every game they've played has been a king-hell nail biter. And in all fairness, they probably deserved to lose that game against Tennessee.
But any and all complaints about the Tigers will probably be moot after the next two weeks, in which they play at No. 7 Auburn and at home against No. 8 Alabama. The SEC is once again the best conference in the nation, and LSU hardly looks like it's the class of the conference.
So get a good look, Tigers fans, this is probably going to be the last week that LSU is among the BCS elite.
Too High: No. 1 Oklahoma
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OK fine, the Sooners have done a hell of a job of elevating themselves from their preseason No. 7 ranking.
But are they really the best team in the country?
Unlike most of their brethren in the top 10, they only have two blowout wins, and one of them was against a Florida State team that just barely managed to hold off a hapless Boston College squad. That was just one of the two ranked opponents they've defeated to this point, neither of which are top-10 teams (the other being Texas, which just cracked the poles after a two-week hiatus).
Bob Stoops' team had better run the table from here on out. And they face possible slip-ups in future tilts with No. 18 Missouri and No. 20 Oklahoma State, both of which are on the road.
If they lose even one game, they're out of it. And I'm calling it right now: They will lose one game.
Too Low: No. 21 South Carolina
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It's amazing what one loss to Kentucky can do to your reputation.
... I'm not saying I'm surprised. I'm merely uttering a true statement.
But let's be honest, the Gamecocks deserve better than No. 21. Their only other loss was to Auburn, a team that boasts the best quarterback in the country (sorry, Andrew Luck), and is also very much in control of their own destiny as far as the National Championship is concerned.
Besides which, they beat Alabama, for Criminy's sake! Surely a feat of that nature doesn't deserve a spot behind such teams as Texas, Florida State and the perennially overrated Nebraska.
Too Low: No. 13 Wisconsin
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Where's the love for the team that just fantastically destroyed the No. 1 team in the country? Sure, they may not be the best team in the Big Ten and they're probably going to get put back in their place when they visit Iowa on Saturday.
But this is a team whose only loss was on the road to Michigan State, the current No. 8 team in the country. The Spartans are having their best season in 40 years; shouldn't their success mean a break for the Badgers?
No? OK, fair enough. But they're still probably better suited for BCS competition than those lousy escape artists in Baton Rouge.
Too Low: No. 8 Alabama
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This one's kind of a no-brainer. They're the defending champs, they have the reining Heisman winner at tailback, and arguably the best coach in all of college football. If all goes according to plan, they will be at or near the top of the BCS standings by the time the dust clears.
That plan, unfortunately, involves the Crimson Tide making it out of the SEC with just that one loss. Needless to say, that's never easy.
Standing in their way is No. 6 LSU, who will probably be coming off a loss at Auburn, No. 24 Mississippi State, and No. 5 Auburn, who they will host on the final day of the regular season.
If Alabama wins out, it's going to be hard to keep them out of the National Championship Game.
Too Low: No. 3 Boise State
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Raise your hand if you're sick of Boise State getting shafted by the BCS rankings.
(*Counts hands*)
That's what I thought.
But seriously, what does Boise State have to do to prove it belongs? It's been grinding opponents into the blue turf for several years now, and the way in which they are still playing second fiddle to all the old guard teams has reached the point of ridiculousness.
So what if they haven't faced any stiff competition, and probably won't for the rest of the year because of Nevada's loss to Hawaii late Saturday night? Anybody who has watched this team play is wont to go off on a lengthy sermon about their flawless game plan and execution, on both sides of the ball.
In addition, it is pretty obvious at this point that the nation is pulling for Boise. It's high time the computers realized that.
Too Low: No. 2 Oregon
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Oregon is the best team in the country. Simple as that.
Go ahead and try to find another team that has dominated the competition as mercilessly as the Ducks have. They've scored at least 42 points in all six of their games, and the only time they were even remotely threatened was in the first half of their game against current No. 12 Stanford.
They ended up winning that game by 21 points.
They still have some tough games left in their schedule, including tilts at USC, Cal and Oregon State. But they are far and away the best team in the Pac-10, and should win out.
A No. 1 ranking in the BCS would be the first in the program's history. They deserve it.
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