BCS Rankings: Hokies Get Hosed in New Rankings

There was outrage last week that the Hokies of Virginia Tech were in the top five of the BCS rankings. Stanford coach David Shaw didn’t like it and it seems that the entirety of ESPN didn’t like it. Well, both Stanford and ESPN got their wish: The Hokies were jumped despite shutting out archrival Virginia by a score of 38-0.

This change in the BCS rankings has basically taken away any chance the Hokies had at reaching the No. 2 position and the BCS National Championship Game. This helps Stanford in terms of the BCS but the Cardinal have no chance of making the national championship game.

The Cardinal can’t jump No. 2 Alabama because they can’t win the Pac-12. Stanford’s regular season is over—it doesn’t have another game before selection Sunday to impress voters. Getting into the top four of the BCS will guarantee it a trip to a BCS bowl game, but that is all that Stanford can hope for.

There were only two teams in the BCS that had a chance at jumping Alabama for the No. 2 ranking; Oklahoma State and Virginia Tech. Both the Hokies and Cowboys are playing this upcoming Saturday. It now appears the third-ranked Cowboys are the country’s only hope at avoiding a rematch of the LSU-Alabama “Game of the Century.”

Virginia Tech now appears to be destined for a trip to the Orange Bowl where it will face the Big East champion. If Clemson loses to the Hokies in the ACC Championship Game, it will go to the Chick-fil-A bowl where it will probably play a team ranked higher than the Big East champ. Someone needs to explain how this could happen.

The best-case scenario for the Hokies now is to somehow have a rematch with Stanford. The talk that has come from Palo Alto, Calif. should be more than enough to motivate the Hokies. This matchup has a slim chance of occurring but there is always hope.

This move in the BCS standings may have just sealed the deal on a terrible Orange Bowl and a boring national championship. This new ranking is basically saying that Virginia Tech shutting out the 24th (AP) ranked team on the road is a lot worse than Stanford beating 22nd-ranked (AP) Notre Dame by 14 at home. It could also mean that complaining to the media does more good than anyone would like to admit.

Either way, I don’t understand it; it seems like the Hokies got the short end of the stick this time.