BCS Rankings Week 11: Who Got Screwed in the Fourth BCS Poll?
BCS Rankings Week 4 continues, and we're now going to turn our attention to who got screwed in these latest BCS standings.
With nine of the top 25 teams going down in flames this past weekend, determining who exactly got shafted in the new rankings is much tougher task than it was in recent weeks.
But it's still the BCS. Screwing people is it's primary purpose. That makes bitching about it our business.
So let's do some business.
Miami (FL)
1 of 10
The Hurricanes were rightfully booted from the BCS rankings after their bad loss at Virginia. And rightfully so. You can't give a team like Virginia their first and only conference win and not face some damning consequences.
Miami redeemed themselves at home against Maryland behind third-string freshman quarterback Stephen Morris. But instead of welcoming them back into the rankings, the nod went to Florida, who blew out Vanderbilt.
Both teams are pretty rotten at this point, but I'm of the opinion that being on top of this year's version SEC East is not that impressive.
Nevertheless, this infraction is pretty minor.
Pittsburgh
2 of 10
Once again, the Big East has been entirely ignored by the BCS rankings. Given the fact that the Big East champion automatically qualifies for a BCS bowl, this is just plain awkward.
If the season ended today, your Big East champ would be Pitt. The team was doomed pretty much as soon as their season started. They had to play at eventual No. 5 Utah, and also dropped games at Miami and Notre Dame. But their conference record is a perfect 3-0, giving them a comfortable spot above the rst of their Big East mates.
Is there anybody to really blame in this instance? Not really. Pitt is on neither of the latest human polls, and the computers could give a crap about awkwardness.
But still.
UCF
3 of 10
The UCF Knights are the class of Conference USA, sitting pretty with a 7-2 record and a 5-0 conference mark.
They're No. 25 in the AP poll, earning their first spot in said poll in the program's history. And the coaches even have them at No. 23.
But the computers have seen it fit to banish the Knights from the kingdom. By all rights, that means that they've been screwed even worse than Pitt.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
No. 23 South Carolina
4 of 10
The Gamecocks got embarrassed at home by new No. 15 Arkansas, and Steve Spurrier's club once again missed out on that magical record of 7-2.
The result? They've been dropped four places to No. 23, and placed behind SEC East foe Florida, who used their blowout win over Vanderbilt to sneak into the BCS standings via a trap door.
And they snuck in ahead of South Carolina, despite the fact the two are tied atop the division. Florida made both the human polls as well, but is ahead of the Gamecocks in neither of them.
Sense? I see none.
No. 21 Nevada
5 of 10
In case you missed it, I've already stated my case about Nevada being too low in the rankings. That basically means they got screwed, so I'll argue on their behalf once again.
Quick, name the team with the fourth best scoring offense in the country, ahead of teams like Stanford, Auburn, and TCU!
The answer: Nevada.
Indeed, the Wolf Pack racked up a school-record 844 yards against Idaho, including a career-best five touchdown day from Colin Kaepernick. They moved up only two spots because of it, and I for one think they deserve better.
No. 15 Arkansas
6 of 10
These new rankings basically tell us that Arkansas is third best among the two-loss teams who cracked the top 15, just barely behind Iowa and Alabama.
You could make the case that Arkansas is at least better than Iowa. Both of The Razorbacks' losses were to teams who are still ahead of them in the standings: Alabama and Auburn.
While Iowa also lost to two tough teams - Wisconsin and Arizona - they could have easily secured their third loss at Indiana this past weekend. It's hard to find a game in Arkansas' schedule that could have been a third loss.
In addition, Ryan Mallett is the best pure passer in the SEC, and he deserves much more national attention.
No. 14 Utah
7 of 10
The Utes also made my 'too low' list, so I'm obligated to stand by them here as well.
Instead of getting a huge boost in the rankings by blowing out the No. 5 team in the country, TCU stayed where they were and the Utes got knocked back nine spots to No. 14.
And despite the fact the Frogs did indeed widen their gap between them and No. 4 Boise State, their non-movement basically tells us that the Utes were that bad, not that the Frogs are that good.
That's not fair to either team, but it's especially not fair to Utah.
Consider this. When Michigan State, a previous undefeated No. 5, got blown out by a team lower than them in the standings, they dropped to 14. The Utes got blown out by a team ahead of them in the standings, and they also dropped to 14.
Connect the dots and you get a great big middle finger aimed at the Utes, and the Mountain West in general. No wonder they're bolting for the Pac-12.
No. 11 Michigan State
8 of 10
I actually rather agreed with Michigan State's far fall from grace after their blowout loss against Iowa, and I don't really have a problem with their No. 11 ranking this week.
But I do think they're a better team than Oklahoma State, who sits just ahead of them at No. 10. Both teams enjoyed huge wins this past weekend, as Michigan State and Edwin Baker ran all over the hapless Minnesota Gophers and Oklahoma State absolutely destroyed then-No. 21 Baylor to the tune of a school-record 725 yards.
But the Spartans got boosted just three spots while Oklahoma State got boosted seven spots, and their placement disagrees with both human polls. And you'll have to excuse me if I think people are better judges of football team than a bunch of computers.
No. 9 Ohio State
9 of 10
When it comes to one-loss teams in the top 10, the debate naturally becomes over who has the "best" loss to their credit. While Ohio State's one and only loss is not the best, it's pretty good.
As you will no doubt recall, the then No.1 Buckeyes lost on the road to new No. 7 Wisconsin a couple weeks ago. Suddenly that loss doesn't look so bad.
Yet they find themselves just behind Nebraska, who lost to Texas at home and could have easily lost to Iowa State this past weekend. They're ahead of the Cornhuskers in the polls, and the Buckeyes certainly have the more balanced team, as they are in the top 10 in the FBS in both scoring offense and scoring defense.
No. 6 Stanford
10 of 10
So who is the team with the "best" loss?
That would be Stanford, who lost to No. 1 Oregon in Autzen Stadium.
Yet they find themselves behind No. 5 LSU, who has made their case for supremacy by hanging tough against Auburn and then pulled off an upset win over Alabama on Saturday.
While LSU is a damn good team, it's hard to argue that they are a dominant team. They seem to get by more on luck and opponent miscues than anything else. And in my estimation, the BCS top 5 should only host dominant teams.
And the Cardinal are just that. Look away from their loss in Oregon, and the only close game they've played all year was a last-second win against a very tough USC squad. They've won the rest of their games by an average spread of 30 points.
Of course, I will also go ahead and recognize that my estimation of Stanford disagrees with the polls just as much as it disagrees with the computers. So feel free to call me a witless dingbat because of that.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
