BCS Rankings: Texas A&M and More Teams That Deserve to Drop in Standings

It would seem as though the upper-tier of the BCS standings will remain largely unchanged when the new rankings are released on Sunday, but several teams throughout the Top 25 certainly didn't do themselves any favors on Saturday.

While losses and poor performances may not knock them out of the standings totally, plenty of ranked teams deserve to take a tumble. Here are three teams in particular that should be significantly lower in the BCS rankings come Sunday.

Virginia Tech Hokies

At 8-1, the Virginia Tech Hokies are currently ranked No. 12. While it is difficult to argue with their ranking due to their record, they have had their fair share of close calls. The narrowly beat East Carolina and Miami (FL) earlier in the season, and were barely able to outlast Duke on Saturday, 14-10.

The Hokies looked extremely rough offensively and were lucky to come away with a victory over the punchless Blue Devils. That type of effort would have resulted in a blowout loss against a more talented team, in all likelihood.

Seeing as Virginia Tech won, I doubt it would fall more than one or two spots in the rankings at all, but I certainly don't view the Hokies as the 12th-best team in the nation. If the Hokies play against Georgia Tech next week like they did against Duke, then that No. 12 ranking may not last very long.

Michigan State Spartans

The Michigan State Spartans earned their No. 11 ranking by shocking the Wisconsin Badgers last week, but they were unable to carry over their momentum as they were dominated by the No. 14 Nebraska Cornhuskers, 24-3.

Nebraska ran over the Spartans with 190 yards on the ground, and Michigan State wasn't able to get anything going offensively either. I don't think the Spartans should be killed in the standings since they handled a brutal stretch of games quite well, but the Huskers have to leapfrog them at the very least.

Michigan State can certainly bounce back as the home stretch looks quite manageable, though, so it wouldn't be surprising to see the Spartans regain their lofty ranking some time over the next few weeks or so.

Texas A&M Aggies

At No. 16, the Texas A&M Aggies were favored at home against Missouri and seemed to have a strong grasp on the game, but a late blown lead led to an overtime loss. The Aggies now have three losses and are in grave danger of falling out of the BCS standings.

The Aggies have been excellent offensively, but it has been their defense that has let them down. They allowed 30 or more points in each of their losses this season, with all of them being by seven or less points.

There is no question that Texas A&M is capable of competing with some of the best teams in the nation, but it struggles to close games out. Things won't get any easier with Oklahoma, Kansas State and Texas all still on the schedule. What once looked to be a very promising season could get out of hand very quickly for the Aggies.