Oregon Ducks: Do They Belong at the Top of the BCS Rankings?

On Thursday, the Oregon Ducks celebrated their first No. 1 AP ranking in the history of the program by demolishing the UCLA Bruins. The absolute destruction of a team that has already beaten two ranked opponents this season has some wondering: Do the Ducks belong at No. 1 in the BCS Rankings?

Darron Thomas and the Ducks put up an impressive 60 points against the Bruins; however, nobody was surprised. Oregon, the number one offense in college football, has scored no fewer than 42 points in a single game on route to an undefeated record.

Thomas is tied for seventh in college football with 17 passing touchdowns and is 29th in total passing yards. His biggest target has been senior Jeff Maehl who has currently racked up 530 yards and six touchdowns. The pair have been effective and a major contributor to the Ducks offense; however, it is the Ducks running game that has truly dominated this season.

While the Ducks are only ranked third overall in total rushing yards per games, sophomore LaMichael James has emerged as the best running back in college football. James leads all running backs in yards with 971 this season and is tied for fourth in touchdowns with 11 thus far on the season. Amongst running backs with over 100 attempts this season, James is second averaging 7.2 yards per attempt. While James has not been a big threat in the passing game, he has 112 receiving yards over the last two games demonstrating that he might eventually develop into a target for Darron Thomas.

The Oregon offense may be getting all of the attention, but the defense has been impressive as well. The Ducks defense ranks 13th in all of college football with only 15.9 points per game.

With all of these statistics demonstrating the dominance of the Ducks in 2010 the question remains:

Oregon is the No. 1 team according to the AP poll. Why are they not number one in the BCS rankings?

The computer simply does not like this Oregon Ducks team. Oregon ranks number one in both the Harris and the USA Today polls, yet the computer rankings place seven different teams in front of the Ducks including the No. 7 Michigan State Spartans and No. 11 Missouri Tigers.

The only reasonable explanation for the computer's distaste for this Oregon Ducks team is the weakness in their schedule. Oregon has beaten only one ranked team, No. 9 Stanford, and this game came at home. The highest ranked defense that Oregon has faced is the 51st ranked Arizona State Sun Devils. The total combined record of Oregon's opponents is 16-28.

Consequently, without any tough opponents besides Stanford, the Ducks have been severely undervalued by the computer rankings. With three tougher teams in California, Arizona, and Oregon State remaining on the schedule, Oregon will have an opportunity to prove to the computers that they are a legitimate No. 1 team. Until then, the discrepancy between human opinion and computer opinion of the Oregon Ducks will remain.