BCS Rankings 2011: Alabama and Teams Most Shafted by Rankings

Just like every single year, there are people up in arms over where teams are ranked in the initial BCS rankings. Some of the griping is unwarranted, but there are some teams who definitely got snubbed.

Here are three teams who flat-out got shafted by the BCS rankings.

Alabama

Alabama is the best team in the nation. They have the stingiest defense in all of college football, giving up an unbelievable seven points a game. With Trent Richardson plowing through teams and the Crimson Tide acquiring wins over Florida, Arkansas and Penn State, it's hard to believe they aren't considered the best team in the nation.

The big question mark with Alabama has been their quarterback situation. A.J. McCarron has put those questions to rest. Since throwing two interceptions in the opener, he's led Alabama to six wins, throwing eight touchdowns and no interceptions. Alabama will let prove the rankings wrong when they square off against LSU in a game that may prove to be more important than the National Championship.

Stanford

With so many promising, undefeated teams still remaining, one of them was bound to draw the short straw. Stanford comes in at eighth, and while the seven teams ranked higher than them are certainly worthy of being ranked where they are, a case could easily be made for putting Stanford as high as No. 4 overall. 

Andrew Luck is at the forefront of the Heisman race and Stanford looks like they are going to run the table. With Alabama and LSU playing each other and Oklahoma State and Oklahoma playing each other, we're bound to see teams ranked above Stanford suffer a loss. Stanford is ranked sixth now, and it would be a shame if they managed to run the table and still didn't get a BCS title shot.

Notre Dame

As unimpressive as Notre Dame's start has been, they don't deserve to be left out of the rankings entirely. They've won four straight, including a huge win over Michigan State.

If Michigan State is going to be ranked 16th in the BCS, it makes no sense to leave Notre Dame out entirely. The Fighting Irish have multiple losses, but if they can manage to beat USC in their upcoming game, it's going to be impossible for them to be discounted.

Rank	Team	BCS Points
1	LSU	.9522
2	Alabama	.9519
3	Oklahoma	.930
4	Oklahoma State	.857
5	Boise State	.803
6	Wisconsin	.771
7	Clemson	.758
8	Stanford	.748
9	Arkansas	.626
10	Oregon	.619
11	Kansas State	.569
12	Virginia Tech	.505
13	Nebraska	.497
14	South Carolina	.491
15	West Virginia	.373
16	Michigan State	.329
17	Texas A&M	.308
18	Michigan	.300
19	Houston	.286
20	Auburn	.265
21	Penn State	.231
22	Georgia Tech	.197
23	Illinois	.152
24	Texas	.135
25	Washington	.087