BCS Rankings: Alabama and 2 Teams That Expose Flaws in the System

It's no mystery that college football is far from perfect.

Given the option, no other sports league in America, collegiate or professional, would even think about employing a system as arbitrary and inconsistent as the BCS to determine its champion. The current bowl arrangement restricts the sport as a whole from tapping into the vast untapped revenue that a college football playoff would generate.

But I'll leave the specifics of that argument to Dan Wetzel and Taylor Branch. In the interim, there are plenty of teams out there whose success or failure in the BCS standings is emblematic of just how messed this whole cartel really is, even on a purely competitive level.

Alabama

Opponents of a more organized and fair college football postseason like to wax poetic about how such an arrangement would devalue the most important regular season in all of sports, how every game serves as a single-elimination playoff in microcosm.

If that's the case, then how does one explain Alabama? The Crimson Tide supposedly blew their one shot to play for the BCS National Championship by losing to LSU, 9-6, in the "Game of the Century."

Yet, despite that loss, Bama dropped only one spot in the BCS, from No. 2 to No. 3. This means we could very well have a rematch of Saturday's struggle in New Orleans two months from now, with the coveted crystal football on the line, if No. 2 Oklahoma State loses once along the way.

Which it very well might, with a date against No. 6 Oklahoma in the Bedlam game still looming.

To be clear, I don't have any real beef with Bama being third. The Tide outplayed the Tigers on Saturday night and would/should have won had it not been for their kickers' missed four-out-of-six field goal attempts.

But, when it comes to shooting down a sanctioned playoff system, Bama's cushy fall stinks to high heaven of incongruity.

Stanford

Just ask Stanford. The undefeated Cardinal checked in at No. 4 for the second week running, despite being ranked third in the Harris Poll and second by the coaches in the USA Today poll.

Anyone want to guess what kept Andrew Luck and company behind Bama in the BCS?

If you answered "the computers," then DING DING DING! We have a winner!

Or a loser, if you're a fan of the Trees. The machines had Stanford at seventh on average, which, if that were the entire formula, would place it behind Boise State, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Just another shining example of the East Coast bias that pervades not just the people in the sport, but the electronics as well.

Of course, the Cardinal will have a golden opportunity to put all of that to bed when No. 7 Oregon comes to town on Saturday. A win over the Ducks should vault them past Alabama and into the No. 3 spot in the BCS.

And if it doesn't? Well, then it might just be time to tear it all down. 

Baylor

But, really, why wait? We already knew there was something fishy going with the computers long before this week's rankings came out.

And if anyone didn't think so, then just take a gander below, where you'll find Baylor at No. 25.

Yes, folks, Baylor—a team that didn't place in either of the human polls and managed just four votes between them.

But, as you might imagine, the all-knowing computers seemed to think otherwise. They put the Bears at No. 19, ahead of Georgia Tech and every Big Ten contender other than Penn State.

Chances are the machines loved the fact that the Bears, at 2-3 in conference play, have suffered losses to No. 2 Oklahoma State and No. 14 Kansas State and have beaten as many opponents ranked in the BCS as you or I have.

You may find yourself wondering, "But I thought this whole thing was about winning!"

Well, so did I, but I guess the BCS, in its infinite wisdom/love affair with strength of schedule, would beg to differ.

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