Before there was the College Football Playoff and its selection committee full of actual people, there was the old BCS and its computers cooking up the rankings.
But thanks to the folks at BCSKnowHow, we can still get an impression of what the old system would make of the polls, and they weren’t shy about lighting a fuse under the top five coming out of a bonkers Saturday full of surprising results.
BCS Names a New No. 1 Team
As with the Coaches Poll and AP top 25 rankings, the BCS formula concurred that Miami deserved the top spot in the updated poll, giving it a 0.9570 score after its thrilling (and somewhat controversial) double-overtime win against Florida State.
Miami also received 40 first-place votes from AP pollsters, absorbing almost three quarters of those votes that Georgia received the week before.
There’s a clear path for Miami to stay at the top of the rankings going forward, but it plays two straight road games at North Carolina and then Notre Dame in the near future that will sort things out more clearly.
BYU, Notre Dame Neck-and-Neck
Unlike the AP voters, who gave 20 first-place votes and the eventual No. 2 ranking to BYU, the BCS formula put the Big 12 contender at No. 3, an improvement of five places after a gutsy and hard-fought win over Notre Dame.
Bear Bachmeier clearly had a grudge against the Irish, taking it out on their defense by throwing for, catching, and running for touchdowns in the game.
Now sitting in first place in a very competitive Big 12, the Cougars need to be on the lookout for a trap situation at 3-3 UCF this week. And a road test at Utah also awaits.
For its part, Notre Dame fell just two places to No. 4 in the BCS rankings, identical to its movement in the AP poll.
SEC Blue Bloods See Biggest Drops
Alabama and Texas suddenly find themselves in the midst of two-game losing streaks, although one of those losses was considerably better for one.
Losing to Georgia won’t hurt Alabama too much in the playoff committee room, but this past weekend’s 26-10 loss at Tennessee could prove more costly. Especially if the Tide stumbles again in a road trip to LSU in a couple weeks.
Alabama dipped seven places to No. 13, but Texas saw the largest drop, falling a dozen spots to No. 19, also mirroring the AP pollsters’ decision.
That helped Florida, who beat the Longhorns in Austin to hand them a second-straight loss to an unranked team, move into the BCS poll to No. 20 this week.
Another Group of Six Contender Emerges
Until now, it appeared that Boise State held a virtual monopoly on being the best team out of the Group of Six.
While that’s still the case for AP voters and probably the playoff selectors, the BCS computers think another is worthy of consideration. Enter James Madison.
The Dukes moved to 7-0 after a dominant 49-22 performance against Georgia State. That marks their 12th straight Sun Belt regular season win and their 11th straight win at home dating back to last season.
AP voters still won’t rank James Madison, but gave them 52 votes. Now, they await some movement at the bottom of the poll to take advantage of in the future.
BCS top 25 rankings
- Miami
- Ohio State
- BYU
- Notre Dame
- Georgia
- Texas Tech
- Indiana
- Ole Miss
- UCLA
- Utah
- Tennessee
- Kentucky
- Alabama
- Houston
- Iowa
- USC
- LSU
- Wake Forest
- Texas
- Florida
- Boise State
- Oregon
- Missouri
- SMU
- James Madison
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