BCS Rankings: Why Are These 5 Teams Still in the AP and USA Today Polls?

This week's BCS Rankings have yet to be released, but the AP and USA Today Top 25 are hours old.

With about a month left in the season, the polls should become more and more refined as we get a picture of which teams deserve a ranking and which teams deserve the boot.

Both Texas A&M and Texas Tech dropped from both polls this week after a couple of embarrassing losses at home.

Who else warrants relegation?

Here is a look at five teams that deserve some questioning.

Auburn

The Auburn Tigers are on the outskirts at No. 25 in the AP Top 25, but they are still there nonetheless.

All things considered, there is little that is entirely impressive about Gene Chizik's defending national champions.

Sure, the Tigers opened the season with two wins, but they were marginal at best. They had a "good" loss to an eventually very good Clemson team, but huge defeats at the hands of Arkansas and LSU linger in the minds of many.

It should be noted that Auburn has just one win on the road, which came against South Carolina.

Additionally, the Tigers are the only three-loss team that is ranked in either poll.

The No. 25 ranking could just be giving them the benefit of the doubt, but one thing is certain: Auburn has struggled this season.

West Virginia

When perusing over West Virginia's accomplishments this season, there is not too much that stands out.

Yes, the Mountaineers do have the seventh-best passing offense and the 15th-best scoring offense. But they also have a couple of stinging losses to LSU in September and Syracuse two weekends ago.

To make matters worse, West Virginia had a close call against Rutgers before pulling away late in the fourth quarter.

Straight up, the Mountaineers have not had a stand-out win, just blowouts against marginal opponents.

USC

The Trojans dropped one spot in the AP Top 25 after a 56-48 loss in a triple-overtime thriller against Stanford Saturday night, but like the aforementioned teams, USC has done little to truly warrant a position in the poll.

With two losses on the season (43-22 at Arizona State), the Trojans can stake a claim that both came against ranked opposition. But in their six wins, there have been mixed results.

USC has put up close wins against Minnesota, Utah and Arizona. None of these teams are entirely respectable this season, and have a combined record od 8-16. 

If we were to include the Trojans' other wins as impressive, they would be a 21-point win over Syracuse, a 21-point win at Cal and a 14-point win at Notre Dame.

Respectable wins, yes. Impressive wins, not really.

Texas

Coming in at No. 25 in the USA Today Poll is Texas, which recently slammed Kansas 43-0 in Austen.

However dominant the Longhorns' performance was over the Jayhawks, it has to be taken with a grain of salt given how excruciatingly bad Kansas has been this season on defense.

Texas' win halted its two-game losing streak marked by both Oklahoma schools, a two-game set that saw the Longhorns get outscored 93-43.

Sure, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are top-10 teams, but how special were the rest of the Longhorns' opponents?

Wins over Rice, BYU, UCLA, Iowa State and Kansas are clap-worthy, but that might be about it.

Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech came back into the AP Top 25 at No. 22 this week after its 31-17 win over Clemson on Saturday.

While some will argue that the Yellow Jackets' win was an impressive one against an even more impressive Clemson team, there is a strong argument against it.

There are two things to consider here.

First of all, the triple-option offense that Georgia Tech so efficiently employs is designed to give the opposition fits, especially given that only a handful of programs in the country utilize that system.

Defensive units have to specialize for one week to defend the triple-option, a scheme they will likely not see again this season.

Secondly, as good as Tech's offense is, its defense has been questionable. This makes the team's margins of victory much closer than they really should be given how opportunistic and extraordinary the offense is.

In the three games leading up to the Yellow Jackets' two-game losing streak against Virginia and Miami (FL), Georgia Tech beat North Carolina, NC State and Maryland by an average margin of 7.3 points. 

By comparison, the Cavaliers and the Hurricanes are a combined 9-7 and the Tar Heels, the Wolfpack and the Terrapins are a combined 12-10.