BCS Standings Week 9: Breaking Down the Biggest Mistakes in This Week's Rankings

Notre Dame has had a remarkable season, but they aren't a better team than LSU. I know they are undefeated, but they have played nail-biters against teams that they should have beaten handedly—at least according to the rankings.

Just Saturday, the Irish barely knocked off an unranked BYU team 17-14 at home. Notre Dame deserves tons of credit for being undefeated at this point in the season, but LSU's body of work, even with one loss, is more impressive.

They knocked off South Carolina and Texas A&M in consecutive weeks. Their only loss came to the No. 2-ranked Florida Gators, on the road, and the deficit was only eight points.

The Irish own a win over Michigan State on the road. Up to now, that is the team's biggest triumph, and how good are the Spartans really? They aren't ranked anymore. If we look at the Stanford win, that was a struggle even though the Irish were at home.

Besides that win, the Irish's best wins have come over teams that we've since realized are overrated.

I'll change my tune if the Irish beat Oklahoma on Saturday, but if not, they are rated too high.

Mix-up in the Middle

The middle of the standings are a bit jumbled as well. The Clemson Tigers are the victims in this situation.

I hesitate to say the Tigers are underrated because of the massive choke job last season. They looked like one of the five best teams in the nation at one point in 2011, but they came crashing to earth in the final four games of the season.

This season they sit at 6-1, with their only defeat coming in Tallahassee to the Florida State Seminoles. That's hardly a bad loss, especially considering the game was a close 49-37 defeat.

We have to judge the Tigers based on what they've done this season, and their resume is more impressive than that of Stanford and Rutgers.

Yet they sit one spot behind the Cardinal and the Scarlet Knights in the BCS standings. Stanford has two losses on the season. One was the aforementioned, respectable and close loss to Notre Dame in South Bend. The other wasn't as easy to accept.

They lost to the Washington Huskies 17-13 on September 17. That defeat is the difference between the two teams' accomplishments at this point. Rutgers hasn't beaten anyone ranked, or even a team with a winning record all season.

The Tigers should be ahead of both Stanford and Rutgers in the standings.

Here are the top 25 teams in the BCS standings:

Week 9 BCS Standings

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