BCS Rankings 2011: Teams That Will Fall the Farthest

It was a wild and wacky final regular season week in the 2011 college football season. With the BCS Rankings set to avail on Sunday night, let’s dig into some teams that had sluggish performances on Saturday. These teams will definitely be free falling in the rankings.

Penn State

Wisconsin and Penn State were playing for the Big Ten Leaders Division on Saturday. One team came ready to play and the other one didn’t.

Penn State showed their face at Camp Randall Stadium, but got embarrassed by the Badgers 45-7.  You always got the sense in 2011 that the Nittany Lions weren’t for real. They have a horrific quarterback dilemma with Matthew McGloin and Rob Bolden, neither of which are any good.

They escaped with single-digit victories against teams like Temple, Indiana and Purdue. The Nittany Lions never should have garnered your complete trust.

Finally, in the biggest game of the season, they showed their real face. Wisconsin and running back Montee Ball carved the Nittany Lions up on the ground, rushing for 264 total yards and four touchdowns.

Penn State grabbed 233 yards of total offense on the day. It was a dreadful offensive performance.

It was the biggest game of the season and Penn State laid an egg. Given their atrocious performance on Saturday, Penn State is due to slide down from No. 19 to No. 23.

Arkansas

When the BCS Rankings come out on Sunday night, Arkansas will look at their schedule and say that they have only defeated one team that is ranked in the Top 25—South Carolina.

They blew their two chances against LSU and Alabama, and they looked awful in both. Arkansas lost by a combined score of 48 points, 24 points in each contest.

LSU outscored Arkansas 41-3 after the Razorbacks jumped to an early 14-0 advantage.

At No. 3 in the BCS Rankings, the question becomes how far will they fall? Usually Boise State gets the raw end of the deal by the BCS, so the computer may stick them in front of the Broncos at No. 6.

But it’s possible for Arkansas to fall not only behind Boise State but behind Houston to No. 9 because the Cougars are undefeated. There is a potential drop-off of six spots.

Auburn

42-14 was the final score in the Iron Bowl on Saturday between Alabama and Auburn. The score line looks better than what it should have been.

Aside from scoring a defensive touchdown and a special team’s touchdown, Auburn never threatened to score on the offensive side of the ball. Alabama deserves credit for their stingy defense, but Auburn’s offense is terrible.

Auburn (7-5) tallied nine first downs in the entire game. Most of those came in the second half. It was a truly pathetic performance in the biggest game on their schedule. It was like a BCS National Championship game to them because if they would have won they would have sent Alabama to a lower BCS Bowl game instead of the national championship.

Auburn quarterback Clint Moseley went 11-18 for 62 yards and an interception. The team went 3-15 on third downs, and averaged a lousy 3.1 yards per completion.

It was pathetic to watch.

The Tigers, now with five losses, shouldn’t even be near the Top 25 rankings. They sat at No. 24 last week, but they will easily be unranked, and they may not even get a vote.