BCS Rankings: 5 Teams That Are Overrated

It is crunch time in college football.

With less than a month remaining in the 2011 season, now is the time for teams to make their final pushes to climb the rankings in hopes of securing a major bowl bid.

Between the BCS, the AP and USA Today polls, there should be little disagreement in the Top 5, but beyond that, there is plenty of room for teams that will get much more credit than they deserve.

Here are five teams consistently overrated in the rankings.

South Carolina

With the understanding that the pollsters will reward teams simply for winning, there may not be another team that has done less to gain more than South Carolina.

Even with Marcus Lattimore, the Gamecocks impressed in the smallest of margins in their first five games.

When Lattimore was lost for the year in South Carolina's 14-12 win over Mississippi State, concerns over offensive production bubbled over.

Counting that win over the Bulldogs, the Gamecocks are 3-1 in their last four games with those three wins coming against teams with a combined 11-14 record. In those matches, South Carolina's average margin of victory was just 5.3 points.

South Carolina is ranked No. 14 in the latest AP Poll, but its recent history should have them much lower.

Baylor

Baylor began its season with a shocking win over TCU, a game in which the Bears gave up 48 points but scoring 50 on the Horned Frogs.

The Bears have skidded in and out of the rankings thanks to their sketchy defense, but with all due respect to Robert Griffin, No. 25 Baylor is overrated in this week's AP Poll.

There is just something about a team that is so polarizing from its offensive to defensive looks that makes you scratch your head.

The Bears are allowing 36 points per game, a statistic that is significantly bolstered by Baylor's 48-0 blanking of Stephen F. Austin earlier in the season.

For a more contemporary look, in Baylor's last four games it has gone 2-2 while allowing the opposition to score an average of 45.8 points per game.

How is that for a Top 25 team?

Houston

There are three undefeated teams in the most recent AP Top 25.

No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Oklahoma State are at the vanguard and control their own destinies to claim spots in the BCS National Championship Game.

At No. 10, the Houston Cougars continue to roll and are two games away from a spotless season.

Though the Cougars recently have exploded offensively, putting up an average of 64.2 points in their last five games, Houston's defense is not exactly stout.

In games against UCLA, Louisiana Tech and UTEP, all marginal teams this season in their own right, the Cougars allowed 34, 34 and 42 points respectively while winning by an average margin of just four points.

Yes, Houston is 10-0 but against who? Credit the Cougars for winning their games, and recently in grand fashion, but something about this team is misleading.

Florida State

What a roller coaster ride for the Florida State Seminoles

They began the season as the No. 6 team in the country and climbed up to No. 5 before hosting the top-ranked Oklahoma Sooners.

An injury-riddled team dropped three straight to the Sooners, the Clemson Tigers and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons and fell out of the Top 25.

Five games later, after picking up wins over five of the ACC's mediocre or worse teams in Duke, Maryland, NC State, Boston College and Miami (FL), the Seminoles crept back into the rankings, but it may have come too soon.

Kansas State

There is something to be said about a team that simply grinds it out to get a win, and that fully encompasses the Kansas State Wildcats.

Bill Snyder's team has won four games this season by four points or less, the most recent coming in a 4OT thriller over Texas A&M.

But before that game, the Wildcats dropped games against Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, one in more embarrassing fashion than the other, but both presented opportunities for this team to answer a call. They missed.

Kansas State had climbed up to No. 8 in the rankings prior to its Oklahoma matchup via a tenacious attitude and a ground game that has been one of the best in the conference.

Now at No. 16, we still do not know how good this team really is. One thing is for sure so far, the Wildcats have not put up a dominating, 60-minute performance to date.