BCS Rankings 2011: Oregon on Track to Climb Back to National Championship Game
It took 2.5 long months of college football, but the Oregon Ducks, at long last, have finally climbed all the way back from their season-opening loss to LSU to find themselves close to where they started.
At No. 4 in the polls and in position to pounce on a berth in the BCS National Championship Game.
A convincing, if not outright dominant, 53-30 victory of a stellar Stanford squad finally thrust Darron Thomas, LaMichael James and the rest of the Ducks back into the national spotlight, looking like a much more physical and well-rounded team than the one that got punched in the mouth by Auburn in last year's national title game and then by the Bayou Bengals in the Cowboys Classic in Arlington, Texas.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Rather than getting beaten up and down the block by a jaw-breaking Stanford ground game and defense and then getting tarred and feathered by Andrew Luck, the Ducks made a statement, pushing the tempo with their blinding team speed while exhibiting a decided edge they'd never before shown on a national stage.
Not that Chip Kelly's club hadn't demonstrated an ability to dominate before, especially on defense. The Ducks limited a high-scoring Washington club to just 17 points and 278 yards on the first Saturday of November.
Of course, that game wasn't exactly available for all the pollsters and pundits to see, except for those working out of saloons and drinking sarsaparillas while out taming the Wild West.
In fact, Oregon's dismantling of Stanford was its second nationally televised game since the LSU game and, luckily for the Ducks, proved to be as much a statement of the team's fitness to compete with the elite as the loss to the Tigers was of its time perhaps being past.
The big question now for the Ducks now is, where do they go from here?
That all depends on how they handle their business through the first weekend of December. A thrashing of 8-2 USC at home could very well nudge Oregon past Alabama in the minds of enough voters and computers, given the weakening of the Crimson Tide's schedule against Georgia Southern, that the Ducks would emerge in the next BCS rankings at No. 3, behind only LSU and Oklahoma State.
With wins against Oregon State in the Civil War Game and Pac-12 South Division winner in the Pac-12 Championship Game, along with a little help from the college football gods, the Ducks may yet "quack" the top two in the BCS rankings to complete the circle of a long and arduous season in Eugene with (you guessed it!) a rematch with LSU for the coveted crystal football.
| 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 |
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
