College Football Rankings Week 12: Consensus from Around the Web

With just a couple of games left in the 2012 regular season, the race for the national championship is now all about the rankings.

But with more than two undefeated teams, plus a heaping handful of great one-loss teams still lurking, how can we possibly find the best contenders for the BCS title—not to mention all the other bowl games?

Is there some sort of consensus we can find, or is the college football nation as polarized as the political world these days?

We've scoured the Internet to find the various polls and rankings out there, and we've lumped them all together right here.

The Bleacher Report College Football Writers' Poll

We'll start with our own in-house Bleacher Report College Football Top 25 Poll.

This poll is put together with votes from the top college football writers right here on B/R, and has seen similar trends this season to those of the AP and Coaches' polls. It's also going to give us a good reference point from which to start our search for an Internet consensus.

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1. Oregon (12 first-place votes)

2. Kansas State (6)

3. Notre Dame (1)

4. Georgia

5. Alabama

6. Ohio State

7. Florida State

8. Florida

9. LSU

10. Clemson

11. Texas A&M

12. South Carolina

13. Oklahoma

14. Stanford

15. Nebraska

16. Texas

17. UCLA

18. Louisville

19. Oregon State

20. Louisiana Tech

21. USC

22. Rutgers

23. Texas Tech

24. Michigan

25. Boise State

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The ESPNU Fan Rankings

Just for fun, we thought we'd add in the one poll in which anyone and everyone can vote. The ESPNU Fan Rankings are compiled using user-defined rankings. Unfortunately, there is one major drawback to this poll: Users can only select from 30 ESPN-selected teams to rank in order from 1 to 30.

Think Utah State should get a No. 25 spot? Too bad. It's not an option.

There's also the wildly biased votes you don't see in the more professional polls (no one is ranking Alabama No. 25 in the B/R poll, Coaches' Poll, or AP Poll).

It's also monumentally silly to rank two-loss Oregon State at No. 5 with 10-0 Ohio State at No. 21. Or how about three-loss USC at No. 12 with Florida at No. 14?

The fan poll changes almost hourly (we're using the poll results as of 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, November 11), but seems to hold steady to its heavy ACC and Pac-12 bias while punishing the SEC at every opportunity.

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1. Oregon

2. Kansas State

3. Florida State

4. Clemson

5. Oregon State

6. Stanford

7. Alabama

8. Notre Dame

9. Texas A&M

10. UCLA

11. Georgia

12. USC

13. Louisville

14. Florida

15. LSU

16. Rutgers

17. Nebraska

18. Texas Tech

19. Oklahoma

20. South Carolina

21. Ohio State

22. Texas

23. Louisiana Tech

24. Mississippi State

25. Northwestern

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The Associated Press College Football Poll

The AP is perhaps the most prestigious college football poll in the nation.

It's also the most important poll that's not part of the BCS calculations these days (as the AP asked the BCS not to use its poll following the 2004 season over concerns about maintaining the AP poll's integrity and independence).

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1. Oregon (45 first-place votes)

2. Kansas State (14)

3. Notre Dame (1)

4. Alabama

5. Georgia

6. Ohio State

7. Florida

8. LSU

9. Texas A&M

10. Florida State

11. Clemson

12. South Carolina

13. Oklahoma

14. Stanford

15. Oregon State

16. Nebraska

17. UCLA

18. Texas

19. Louisiana Tech

20. Louisville

21. USC

22. Rutgers

23. Texas Tech

24. Michigan

25. Kent State

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The USA Today Coaches' Poll

USA Today publishes one of the two “human polls” that is used to calculate the BCS Rankings each week.

The Coaches' Poll makes up one-third of the BCS Rankings, and polls 60 FBS head coaches (although this year, only 59 coaches vote after USC's Lane Kiffin gave up his voting rights after being caught in a lie about how he voted his Trojans at season's start).

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1. Oregon (44 first-place votes)

2. Kansas State (14)

3. Notre Dame (1)

4. Georgia

5. Alabama

6. Florida State

7. Florida

8. LSU

9. Clemson

10. Texas A&M

11. South Carolina

12. Oklahoma

13. Stanford

14. Nebraska

15. Texas

16. UCLA

17. Oregon State

18. Louisville

19. Louisiana Tech

20. Rutgers

21. USC

22. Boise State

23. Michigan

24. Oklahoma State

25. Texas Tech

 

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The Harris Interactive College Football Poll

The other part to the human element of the BCS is the poll from the folks at Harris Interactive.

Harris Interactive polls current and former media types, as well as former coaches, players and administrators.

The Harris Poll has 124 voters, and counts for one-third of the BCS Rankings.

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1. Oregon (90 first-place votes)

2. Kansas State (23)

3. Notre Dame (1)

4. Alabama (1)

5. Georgia

6. Florida State

7. Florida

8. LSU

9. Clemson

10. Texas A&M

11. South Carolina

12. Oklahoma

13. Stanford

14. Nebraska

15. Texas

16. Oregon State

17. Louisville

18. USC

19. UCLA

20. Louisiana Tech

21. Rutgers

22. Texas Tech

23. Boise State

24. Michigan

25. Mississippi State

 

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The Bowl Championship Series Rankings

Finally, we come to the rankings that really bring everything together.

Okay, not everything, but as close as we're going to get for the time being.

The BCS combines the aforementioned Harris Interactive and Coaches' polls with a collection of six computerized ranking systems.

Of the six computer rankings, the top ranking and bottom ranking for each team are discarded, and the remaining four are averaged. That computer average makes up one-third of the final BCS Rankings with both the Coaches' Poll and Harris Poll each counting for one-third.

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1. Kansas State

2. Oregon

3. Notre Dame

4. Alabama

5. Georgia

6. Florida

7. LSU

8. Texas A&M

9. South Carolina

10. Florida State

11. Clemson

12. Oklahoma

13. Stanford

14. Nebraska

15. Texas

16. Oregon State

17. UCLA

18. USC

19. Louisville

20. Louisiana Tech

21. Michigan

22. Rutgers

23. Texas Tech

24. Oklahoma State

25. Washington

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Building a Consensus

Coming up with a general consensus is easier said that done for many teams.

Sure, we can look at Oregon, Kansas State and Notre Dame and pretty much put all three of those teams in the top three without question.

It also seems that Notre Dame is a pretty unanimous No. 3 across the board.

But is Oregon No. 1 or Kansas State?

And what about No. 4, or No. 24 for that matter?

For that, we'll need to balance one poll against the rest while trying to reconcile the BCS Rankings with common sense.

It's also worth noting here that Ohio State, Penn State and Central Florida are all ineligible to receive votes in the Coaches' Poll, the Harris Poll and the BCS, so take that into consideration when viewing their final “consensus” rankings.

We've also added in the teams “also receiving votes” in every poll (with the lowest ranking being No. 40 in both the AP and Harris polls).

So let's begin, shall we?

From the Bottom Up

Starting at the bottom of the rankings (equivalent to No. 30 and below), we'll list the poll average for every team.

We've also included the number of polls each program has appeared in out of our six poll selections in parentheses.

Take notice of Washington. Although the Huskies were No. 25 in the BCS Rankings this week, they only average a ranking of No. 35, and didn't appear in two of the six polls—the lowest-ranked team to appear in that many polls.

Oklahoma State: 25.800 average poll position (5 poll appearances)

Mississippi State: 26.800 (5)

Kent State: 27.250 (4)

Northern Illinois: 27.500 (4)

Central Florida: 30.500 (2)

Cincinnati: 30.750 (4)

Utah State: 31.000 (3)

Northwestern: 32.000 (4)

BYU: 33.000 (1)

Ohio: 33.000 (1)

TCU: 34.000 (2)

Tulsa: 34.667 (3)

Washington: 35.000 (4)

San Diego State: 35.000 (3)

Arizona: 35.500 (2)

Fresno State: 35.667 (3)

San Jose State: 36.000 (2)

Middle Tennessee: 37.000 (1)

Toledo: 39.500 (2)

The Consensus Top 25

No. 1: Oregon (1.167 average poll position)

No. 2: Kansas State (1.833)

No. 3: Notre Dame (3.833)

No. 4: Alabama (4.833)

No. 5: Georgia (5.667)

No. 6: Florida State (7.000)

No. 7: Florida (8.167)

No. 8: Clemson (9.000)

No. 9: LSU (9.167)

No. 10: Texas A&M (9.500)

No. 11: Ohio State (11.000; ineligible in three polls)

No. 12: Stanford (12.167)

No. 13: South Carolina (12.500)

No. 14: Oklahoma (13.500)

No. 15: Oregon State (14.667)

No. 16: Nebraska (15.000)

No. 17: UCLA (16.000)

No. 18: Texas (16.833)

No. 19: Louisville (17.500)

No. 20: USC (18.500)

No. 21: Louisiana Tech (20.167)

No. 22: Rutgers (20.500)

No. 23: Texas Tech (22.333)

No. 24: Michigan (23.200)

No. 25: Boise State (25.250)

What Does It All Mean?

So now what? What does it mean that Oregon is a consensus No.1 team but still No. 2 in the BCS?

What does a full point separating Alabama and Notre Dame mean for the Tide's chances of backing into the BCS National Championship Game?

What about the four other SEC teams in the consensus top ten?

Relax. There's still two weeks left in the regular season, and many of these teams have a conference championship game to worry about, too.

Notre Dame and Alabama are probably both going to need help.

While that may be viewed as blasphemy to many SEC fans, the Crimson Tide have no one to blame but themselves. Alabama was a near-unanimous No. 1 in every poll until losing to the Aggies on Saturday.

Georgia still has a path to Miami, but it leads not only through Atlanta, but will also require a little charity from two of the unbeaten three at the top.

As for Oregon fans, it's time to take a breath.

Your team is in the top two in the BCS, which is all that really matters. If Oregon keeps winning, the strength of the human polls—a unanimous No. 1—will carry the Ducks all the way to Miami.

The same goes for Kansas State. After all, we have a consensus.

Don't we?