BCS Rankings: Oklahoma Sooners and Biggest Surprises in Week 10 Standings

The Week 10 BCS Rankings are out, sooo let the bickering begin!

The latest edition is chock-full of surprises and head scratchers, though nothing TOO egregious to speak of. Defeats by previously undefeated teams (Clemson and Kansas State) and one-loss squads (Wisconsin and Michigan State) once again nudged open the flood gates ever so slightly for other teams to creep ever closer into the national championship picture.

So which teams made out better than they (probably) should have? And which ones were disrespected by the almighty BCS computers?

Rank	Team	BCS Average
1	LSU	.9734
2	Alabama	.9591
3	Oklahoma State	.9310
4	Stanford	.8615
5	Boise State	.8522
6	Oklahoma	.7760
7	Arkansas	.7033
8	Oregon	.6916
9	South Carolina	.6177
10	Nebraska	.6156
11	Clemson	.596
12	Virginia Tech	.568
13	Houston	.470
14	Kansas State	.460
15	Michigan	.451
16	Penn State	.402
17	Michigan State	.308
18	Georgia	.290
19	Arizona State	.236
20	Wisconsin	.216
21	Texas	.212
22	Auburn	.149
23	Georgia Tech	.128
24	West Virginia	.114
25	Southern Mississippi	.094

Oklahoma Sooners

At No. 6, the Sooners checked in as the highest-ranked, one-loss team this week after annihilating Kansas State in Manhattan, 58-17.

As solid a win as that was, over a previously undefeated Wildcats team, it shouldn't have been enough to vault them back ahead of Oregon and Arkansas so soon after suffering that shocking home loss to Texas Tech.

Then again, the Sooners have as many wins over currently-ranked teams (two) as the Ducks and the Razorbacks do...combined.

OU will simply have to hold steady over the next three weeks before getting their big shot to get back into the BCS title picture—against No. 3 Oklahoma State in the Bedlam Game in Stillwater.

South Carolina Gamecocks

South Carolina shot up from 13th to ninth after pulling out a ho-hum win over a beat-up Tennessee team in Knoxville.

The Gamecocks are easily the weakest team in the Top 10 of the BCS standings, especially after losing star running back Marcus Lattimore to a season-ending knee injury in a 14-12 win at Mississippi State mid-month.

To be fair, winning on the road in the SEC is no easy feat, and this was the third such victory of the season for Steve Spurrier's squad. That being said, with the way they've played this season, between losing Lattimore and shuffling in Connor Shaw under center in place of Stephen Garcia, the Gamecocks would be fortunate to extend that number to four at No. 7 Arkansas.

However, if they do, their place in the standings will be more than justified.

Oregon Ducks

Now, when it comes to top-10 teams that got gypped, no one in that category has more to gripe about than Oregon.

True, the Ducks didn't look their best against a Washington State team that hadn't won since the first of October, and the benching of Darron Thomas should give pollsters pause.

But it wasn't the voters who dropped the Quack Attack below Oklahoma and Arkansas; rather, it was the computersthe one element of the whole BCS equation that doesn't consider final scores, injuries and benchings, that dragged the Ducks down.

Wins at Washington and No. 4 Stanford should help Oregon to remedy that problem.

Assuming, of course, that they emerge victorious from those road tests.

Nebraska Cornhuskers

Usually, the Big Ten gets too much respect from the BCS, pollsters and computers alike.

This year, however, the problem seems to be the very opposite, at least for No. 10 Nebraska. The Cornhuskers checked in at No. 9 in both the USA Today Poll and the Harris Poll but were all over the computers, with some putting them as high as eighth and others as low as 18th.

Granted, a move up from 14th to 10th after beating No. 17 Michigan State is solid and still puts Big Red in position to potentially sneak its way to New Orleans if it wins out.

And, if the Huskers continue to win, they'll creep up the standings slowly, but surely, especially considering that No. 7 Arkansas and No. 9 South Carolina will play each other this coming Saturday.

Kansas State Wildcats

If there's any team that should have dropped further than it did after losing in Week 9, it's Kansas State.

The Wildcats broke their fall at No. 14, aided heavily by a computer average that still had them at eighth overall.

A strange development, indeed, considering that K-State was fifth in last week's rankings, which would suggest that the team's loss at home to Oklahoma didn't hurt its statistical case too much.

Of course, had the computers seen how badly the Sooners beat up on Bill Snyder's bunch, they might have felt a bit differently.

Regardless, it's still somewhat perplexing that the computers would show such favor to a team with nary a win over a currently-ranked team on its resume and a victory at 4-4 Miami as its lone out-of-conference "triumph" of note.