BCS Rankings Week 13: Who Got Screwed in the Sixth BCS Poll?
The BCS rankings for Week 13 are now just a couple hours old, but there's no reason that us college football fans need to get off our collective soapbox quite yet.
Now that we know who is too high and who is too low, it's time to set our minds to who got screwed the most in these latest rankings.
With the top five teams going unchanged for the third week in a row, most of our complaining will be directed towards the lower 20 teams, where there was movement in all but three spots.
And that leaves us with plenty to complain about.
Here are 10 teams who got screwed in the sixth BCS rankings.
10. Northern Illinois
1 of 10
With three of the bottom five teams from Week 12's BCS rankings going down, I for one was hoping that the door would be open for some new blood in the rankings for Week 13.
Instead, all we got was NC State, a team that had been there before a couple weeks prior.
One of the more intriguing alternatives is the Northern Illinois Huskies, who sit atop the Mid-American conference with a 9-2 record. They've won eight games in a row since dropping a tight one at Illinois, and have averaged over 40 points a game in that span.
As it is, the Huskies are just barely outside the top 25 in both of the human polls, which is considerable given the fact that the only team keeping them out is one from the mighty SEC West.
Besides, how about a shout-out to Chad Spann? He leads the nation with 18 rushing touchdowns.
9. West Virginia
2 of 10
Another team that perhaps should have cracked the bottom five is West Virginia.
The Mountaineers remain the only team in the Big East who have cracked the BCS rankings this year. That was way back when the very first rankings were released in Week 8; they were subsequently bounced from the rankings when they lost to Syracuse 19-14, and the Big East has been absent ever since.
Because the Big East champ automatically qualifies for a BCS bowl, this is a huge problem. And it's also a key reason I like to give at least one shout-out to the Big East when I do this list every week.
The Mountaineers improved to 7-3 with their 17-10 win at Louisville, and they boast the best record in the conference. Pittsburgh is leading the Big East at the moment, but the Mountaineers stand a pretty good chance to take the conference if they win out.
It is, of course, pretty complicated. But right now the Mountaineers and their top-four defense look like the best of the Big East.
8. No. 19 Nevada
3 of 10
The Wolf Pack once again cracked my list of teams that are too low this week, and there's reason for Nevada fans (like the gentleman to your left) to be doubly outraged this week.
Thanks to Texas A&M's win over Nebraska, Nevada actually dropped a spot from No. 18 to No. 19. This even despite the fact that they pounded yet another opponent into dust with their 52-6 win over New Mexico State.
The Wolf Pack may be a non-AQ, not to mention a team that plays second fiddle to Boise State in the WAC, but they certainly seem deserving of more respect than the amount they get week in and week out.
After all, the only teams in the country that rack up more yards and points than the mighty Wolf Pack are Oklahoma State, Boise State and Oregon. Pretty good company.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
7. No. 18 South Carolina
4 of 10
The Gamecocks are another team that got knocked down a peg in the standings thanks to the Aggies' big win over Nebraska, and they have even more reason than Nevada to be none too happy about it.
Sure, I'm with you in thinking that their 69-24 over the men of Troy is not exactly a trophy win. But the fact that the SEC East champs just got leapfrogged by a team that has virtually no chance of winning the Big 12 South just doesn't feel right.
And if I have to give a shout-out to Chad Spann, then I definitely have to give one to Marcus Lattimore. The freshman running back had three touchdowns and 102 rushing yards in a single half against Troy, and he did it all on just a handful of carries. Not bad.
6. No. 17 Texas A&M
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Now that we've established that Nevada and South Carolina got screwed over when Texas A&M jumped them in the rankings, I believe it's high time that we gave the Aggies some props.
The truth is that the Aggies are on a pretty impressive run right now. The Cornhuskers were the second BCS No. 8 team that they've dispatched in the past three weeks, as they pulled the same stunt when they beat the then-No. 8 Sooners.
While that win over Oklahoma was good enough to get them into the BCS rankings, the fact that the win over Nebraska only gave them a two-spot boost is a little underwhelming.
Don't you think? Or am I stretching too much with this one?
Your call.
5. No. 16 Virginia Tech
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As soon as things went final in Nebraska's loss to Texas A&M, it was a foregone conclusion that several teams would be moving on up when the BCS rankings were announced.
But the cut-off point, as it were, turned out to be the No. 16 Virginia Tech Hokies. The three teams immediately ahead of them in last week's rankings—Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas—all moved up one spot, and Nebraska settled just ahead of them at No. 15.
Of those three teams immediately ahead of them, only Arkansas beat a ranked opponent. And of the teams in question, only the Hokies can boast about being a division champion.
This is not to mention, of course, that the Hokies were also elevated to No. 13 in the AP poll and No. 14 in the USA Today poll.
I suppose this is what happens when one loses to James Madison.
4. No. 11 Alabama
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There was all sorts of movement both above and below Alabama's No. 11 spot.
But the defending champs themselves gained absolutely nothing from their win over Georgia State.
True, there should never be too much to be gained from a win over an FCS team, but you could easily make the case that the Tide should have at least gotten a one-spot boost by virtue of Nebraska's loss.
Instead, Michigan State got the nod to join the top 10, despite the fact that they were less than 15 minutes away from losing to Purdue on Saturday.
Make no mistake, Spartan fans, Alabama is a better team. Even if they do have two losses.
And indeed, the writers saw fit to elevate the Tide to No. 9 after already having them at No. 10 in their rankings for Week 12.
3. No. 7 Wisconsin
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The Badgers have perhaps been the rising star in the country over the last several weeks, and they definitely have a case to be considered the best one-loss team in the country.
And when No. 5 LSU barely escaped with their loves against Ole Miss, you have to suspect that many in the Wisconsin locker room thought that maybe, just maybe, they'd get a boost in the rankings.
Well, they were elevated to No. 5 in the AP poll and got a pretty big boost in terms of their BCS average, but they're still sitting pretty at No. 7.
But oh well. The high BCS ranking means that the Badgers still have the inside track as far as the Big Ten championship is concerned, so I guess it doesn't matter.
They still got screwed, though.
2. No. 6 Stanford
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Stanford is another team that got screwed in light of LSU's close win.
When Cal managed to hold the unstoppable Oregon offense to just one touchdown and 317 yards of offense, I was just one of many people who thought that my alma mater stood a very good chance of debunking Stanford's Rose Bowl hopes once and for all.
Apparently not. But instead of gaining what perhaps should have been huge style points with their 48-14 win in the Big Game, the Cardinal barely budged in any of the rankings, much less the BCS.
So, in other words, Cal is just that bad.
But, if that is so, how come Oregon lost just one first-place vote in the AP poll? For that matter, why did their BCS average increase?
(Head explodes.)
1. No. 4 Boise State
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When the Broncos put a 51-0 hurting on a Fresno State team that was coming off a near-win against Nevada, I was just one of many people out there that thought Boise had finally done enough to reclaim their No. 3 spot.
Instead, the win was only good enough to narrow the margin between them and the idle TCU Horned Frogs to the narrowest of margins. The gap between the Frogs and the Broncos in terms of BCS average is now a mere 0.0135.
Well, that may be a minor victory in and of itself, but it's not good enough for me, dammit.
As much as all you old-guard people like to hate on Boise, the fact of the matter is that they are easily the most balanced team in the country. They're second in scoring offense and second in total defense.
They deserve better.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
