BCS Standings: Big 12 Teams Are Getting Too Much Love from Computers

For all the talk about the SEC being the best conference in college football, the BCS itself may yet beg to differ.

Or rather, its computers would, judging by all the love and affection they've been calculating for the Big 12.

Yes, that Big 12, the one with 10 teams, the one that only recently was on the brink of disbanding entirely.

And the one that has five teams—half of its membership, if you're not into math—in the Top 25 of the BCS standings.

Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with having Oklahoma State and Oklahoma where they are, at No. 2 and No. 6, respectively. The undefeated Cowboys have beaten three teams currently ranked by the BCS while the Sooners have two such victories to their credit.

The league as a whole, though, seems to riding rather tightly on the coattails of those two programs, at least in the virtual eyes of the computers. No. 14 Kansas State and No. 16 Texas have both lost to the Pokes and the Sooners this season, which the computers seem to like, seeing as how the Wildcats and the Longhorns are 10th and 11th among the machines.

Most perplexing of all, though, is Baylor's inclusion at No. 25. The Bears are one of two three-loss teams in the BCS, along with No. 20 Auburn, but weren't included in either the Harris Poll or the USA Today Coaches Poll, garnering only four votes between the two.

Yet, somehow, the computers still had Baylor at No. 19, ahead of one-loss Cincinnati and a laundry list of two-loss teams, including the Big Ten quadrant of Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Michigan.

Don't get me wrong: the Big 12 is an incredibly strong league filled with competitive teams that are a ton of fun to watch.

But really? Good enough to drag Baylor into the Top 25? Good enough to put Kansas State and Texas, neither of whom has even the slightest chance of claiming the conference, ahead of league title contenders in the Big Ten and the SEC (Georgia)?

Clearly, Texas, K-State and Baylor owe a debt of gratitude to the Sooner State.

Rank	Team	BCS Average
1	LSU	.9931
2	Oklahoma State	.9447
3	Alabama	.8836
4	Stanford	.8749
5	Boise State	.8473
6	Oklahoma	.7978
7	Oregon	.7708
8	Arkansas	.7452
9	Clemson	.6435
10	Virginia Tech	.5913
11	Houston	.551
12	Penn State	.484
13	South Carolina	.453
14	Kansas State	.381
15	Georgia	.370
16	Texas	.366
17	Michigan State	.337
18	Wisconsin	.305
19	Nebraska	.279
20	Auburn	.210
21	Georgia Tech	.209
22	Southern Mississippi	.204
23	Cincinnati	.187
24	Michigan	.177
25	Baylor	.071