NCAA Poll Patrol: Week 12

This week, it comes before The Hangover Cure, which you’ll get Monday.

As always, your rankings for this week are here. I’ll be using No. N to denote the Nth team in the AP Poll, and #N to denote the Nth team in the BCS Rankings. (I try to ignore the USA Today Poll if possible, for reasons we’ll get to in a bit.)

So, the questions of the week:

Why is Alabama ranked ahead of Texas Tech in all human polls but behind them in the BCS computer average?

In short, and in what may be the answer to many questions in this column: a lack of creativity.

No. 2/#2 Texas Tech was ranked ahead of No. 1/#1 Alabama in both the AP and USA Today preseason polls, but was leapfrogged by the Tuscaloosa Pachyderms in the AP Poll after the second week of the year and in the USA Today Poll after the Tide swept Georgia aside.

But since, ‘Bama has struggled with four-loss Kentucky and Ole Miss teams and required overtime to give a then-two-loss LSU team its third defeat of the year; Texas Tech had its overtime scare against Nebraska, but came back against the rugged, proven Texas team and annihilated both Kansas and a mildly overrated Oklahoma State squad, and has certainly looked better of late.

Were it not for an unwritten rule about not dropping teams unless they lose, one that’s especially potent as the crop of unbeatens gets culled, Texas Tech would be ahead of Alabama in the human polls like they are in the computers, where greater emphasis on strength of schedule and statistical perspective puts the Red Raiders ahead, 980 to 97, in percentage of computer points available.

(Aside: there are six computer polls used in the BCS, and each awards points for position in its Top 25, 25 for the top slot, 24 for second, and so on. Texas Tech is no worse than second in any computer poll, while Alabama is third in one.)

It’s not something that will matter should Tech and ‘Bama continue to win. But if Tech loses to Oklahoma, which will be the trendy pick of the next fortnight, being second instead of first may mean a drop from below the top that not only knocks them out of national championship contention, but puts them behind Texas (who TTU beat) and Oklahoma (who they would have lost to) in the BCS, making it easier to pass up the light-traveling Lubbock team for their brand-name compatriots with the guise of higher rankings as the reason.

Which BCS buster has the best shot?

It’s Utah. The No. 8/#7 Utes’ 13-10 nailbiter against TCU confirms that this team is the most battle-tested of the current triad of mid-major unbeatens, and it doesn’t hurt that the BCS computers love