BCS Rankings: Southern Miss Gets Shafted Following Victory vs. Cougars

The Southern Miss Golden Eagles were looking to make a big jump in the final interaction of the BCS rankings following their victory over the Houston Cougars in the Conference USA title game. In the end, that didn't happen.

They didn't even jump the Cougars.

This was quite a knock at the Golden Eagles who handled the Cougars with relative ease. The Cougars did finish the season 11-1 while the Golden Eagles finished at 10-2. They beat them 49-28, proving that the Cougars needed some real competition to prove that they deserved to be undefeated and poised for a potential at-large BCS bid.

It is similar to the Oregon Ducks and the Stanford Cardinal. The Ducks defeated the Cardinal and won the Pac-12 title, but still the Cardinal were put above them in the final rankings because they had less losses.

The Eagles did move up three spots, but that was nothing in comparison to the Cougars who slid back 11 spots. There is no doubt that the Eagles deserved to be high and in position to play in a better bowl game then the Hawaii Bowl.

Coach Larry Fedora had this team going in the right direction, especially with that final record of 10-2. There is no doubt that losses to Marshall and UAB killed them, but the victory over Houston should have been enough to launch the team into the Top 20 and above their Conference USA foes.

Quarterback Austin Davis has thrown for 3,331 yards with 28 touchdowns, and has this Eagles offense heading in the right direction for their bowl game. There is nothing that the Eagles can do now besides win and prove that they deserved to be higher in the rankings.

If they can win over the Nevada Wolf Pack in Hawaii, they will be able to prove the naysayers wrong.