BCS Rankings: Why Oregon Deserved To Leapfrog Alabama in Week 12

Oregon is finally getting some of the credit they deserve. The BCS machine has placed them fourth in the newest BCS standings. Fresh off a thorough beating of Andrew Luck and Stanford on the road, Oregon has jumped three spots.

They sit behind LSU and Oklahoma State, of course. Both of those teams are undefeated in major conferences. Also sitting above the Ducks is one-loss Alabama. The Tide, of course, have one loss to LSU. Although the Ducks have that same one loss on their record, to LSU, there is one huge difference.

Alabama lost at home. Sure it was a grind-out 9-6 contest, but the bottom line is, they lost. Oregon lost to LSU on a "neutral" field. That field was no more neutral than it would be playing Alabama in Birmingham.

The field is about 450 miles away from the LSU campus and the crowd was decidedly pro-LSU. So, while it was technically neutral, logically it was not. In that game, Oregon had injuries to running back LaMichael James and other key players. 

It could be concluded that the Alabama loss was worse than the Oregon loss. Oregon is clearly head and shoulders above the other one-loss teams and the only other undefeated team, No. 11 Houston.

It won't matter if both LSU and Oklahoma St hold steady, but both teams have very tough games ahead of them. If LSU loses to Arkansas or Oklahoma State loses Bedlam, the BCS misstep will be crucial.

Rank	Team	BCS Average
1	LSU	.9933
2	Oklahoma State	.9642
3	Alabama	.9099
4	Oregon	.8755
5	Oklahoma	.8400
6	Arkansas	.7974
7	Clemson	.6935
8	Virginia Tech	.6755
9	Stanford	.6747
10	Boise State	.5959
11	Houston	.567
12	South Carolina	.528
13	Kansas State	.497
14	Georgia	.453
15	Michigan State	.439
16	Nebraska	.382
17	Wisconsin	.333
18	Michigan	.295
19	TCU	.252
20	Southern Mississippi	.245
21	Penn State	.230
22	Baylor	.136
23	Texas	.120
24	Auburn	.079
25	Florida State	.071