BCS Rankings 2011: Stanford Cardinal and Teams Guaranteed to Rise in Next Poll

Hey, fans of college football programs that may have been “screwed” in the first BCS standings, quit your whining, because there is still a lot of games for your team to make up ground in the standings.  

That’s why after this week’s games, you will be singing a different tune when the next BCS standings are revealed.  

There are two teams that have a great chance in improving their standings by winning their game this week. They have a game either against a ranked team or will benefit from a team ahead of them losing.  

These teams that will move up this week will still not be in the top three of the BCS standings but, will move up enough to get into serious consideration for a BCS bowl game. 

No. 8 Stanford Cardinal 

Stanford begins their quest to the 2011 national title on Saturday against a surprisingly ranked No. 25 Washington team. They’re surprising because before the season, no one expected this Washington team to come anywhere near the rankings, after losing quarterback Jake Locker to the NFL.  

But, here they are sitting at No. 25 ready to travel to Palo Alto, California to take on the No. 8 Stanford Cardinal.  

The win this week for Stanford will be their first win over a ranked opponent this year. Winning against Washington this week, will move Stanford over teams like, No. 7 Clemson and No. 6 Wisconsin, but we’ll get into why they’ll move over Wisconsin next.

No. 16 Michigan State Spartans 

Michigan State has the chance to be the biggest movers this week, as their win against the No. 6 Wisconsin Badgers will shoot the Spartans all the way into the No. 10 to No. 12 range.  

The win over Wisconsin will help out Stanford move up into the No. 6 spot and it will drop the Badgers down to No. 8. 

Michigan State already has beaten one of the Big-Ten’s best at home, as last week they dismantled their in-state rivals, the Michigan Wolverines. This week, the second ranked defense in points per game, will stop RusselMania and the Wisconsin Badgers.

These two teams will be our biggest moves when the next BCS standings come out on Sunday. They will give new hope to their fan bases who thought that they would not have a chance at the BCS championship. 

Twitter: @tjmcaloon