Alabama ranks No. 1 in the 2013 season's first BCS rankings, followed by Florida State. If each team remains undefeated through its conference championship, that could be our national title matchup, but Oregon still looks to have the best chance of meeting the Tide in the BCS National Championship, if all three remain undefeated.
The year's first BCS standings -- note how Oregon's only .0028 points behind Florida State at the moment:
BCS | Harris Poll | USA Today | Computer Rankings | ||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
RK | TEAM | AVG | 2012 | RK | PTS | % | RK | PTS | % | AVG | A&H | RB | CM | KM | JS | PW | % |
1 | Alabama | .9841 | 2 | 1 | 2615 | .9962 | 1 | 1544 | .9961 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | .960 |
2 | Florida State | .9348 | 12 | 3 | 2401 | .9147 | 3 | 1410 | .9097 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .980 |
3 | Oregon | .9320 | 4 | 2 | 2520 | .9600 | 2 | 1482 | .9561 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | .880 |
4 | Ohio State | .8553 | NR | 4 | 2321 | .8842 | 4 | 1382 | .8916 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 8 | 7 | .790 |
5 | Missouri | .8219 | NR | 6 | 2026 | .7718 | 7 | 1184 | .7639 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | .930 |
6 | Stanford | .7414 | 6 | 8 | 1952 | .7436 | 8 | 1117 | .7206 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 15 | 10 | .760 |
7 | Miami (FL) | .7200 | NR | 7 | 2008 | .7650 | 6 | 1186 | .7652 | 10 | 8 | 21 | 12 | 9 | 12 | 8 | .630 |
8 | Baylor | .7120 | NR | 5 | 2038 | .7764 | 5 | 1255 | .8097 | 12 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 15 | 14 | 13 | .550 |
9 | Clemson | .6249 | 14 | 10 | 1616 | .6156 | 10 | 913 | .5890 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 9 | .670 |
10 | Texas Tech | .6220 | NR | 9 | 1662 | .6331 | 9 | 981 | .6329 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 11 | .600 |
11 | Auburn | .5058 | NR | 15 | 1105 | .4210 | 17 | 537 | .3465 | 7 | 7 | 17 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 6 | .750 |
12 | UCLA | .4807 | 17 | 11 | 1323 | .5040 | 11 | 710 | .4581 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 19 | 13 | 11 | 12 | .480 |
13 | LSU | .4552 | 8 | 12 | 1212 | .4617 | 13 | 688 | .4439 | 15 | 14 | 9 | 17 | 11 | 19 | 16 | .460 |
14 | Virginia Tech | .4408 | NR | 19 | 841 | .3204 | 19 | 499 | .3219 | 8 | 13 | NR | 9 | 7 | 7 | 5 | .680 |
15 | Oklahoma | .4204 | 11 | 14 | 1110 | .4229 | 12 | 695 | .4484 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 15 | 19 | 20 | 19 | .390 |
16 | Texas A&M | .3666 | 9 | 13 | 1177 | .4484 | 15 | 622 | .4013 | 18 | 22 | 18 | 22 | 16 | 22 | 17 | .250 |
17 | Fresno State | .3379 | NR | 18 | 920 | .3505 | 18 | 532 | .3432 | 17 | 16 | NR | 14 | NR | 16 | 14 | .320 |
18 | Northern Illinois | .3032 | 15 | 21 | 518 | .1973 | 22 | 298 | .1923 | 13 | 19 | 10 | 13 | 14 | 5 | 15 | .520 |
19 | Oklahoma State | .2687 | NR | 17 | 951 | .3623 | 13 | 688 | .4439 | 28 | 25 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | .000 |
20 | Louisville | .2556 | 21 | 16 | 1046 | .3985 | 16 | 571 | .3684 | 28 | NR | 15 | NR | NR | NR | NR | .000 |
21 | South Carolina | .2161 | 10 | 20 | 673 | .2564 | 20 | 468 | .3019 | 26 | 24 | 19 | NR | 22 | NR | 23 | .090 |
22 | Michigan | .1637 | 18 | 22 | 415 | .1581 | 23 | 268 | .1729 | 21 | 17 | 20 | 16 | NR | NR | 25 | .160 |
23 | UCF | .1394 | NR | 25 | 238 | .0907 | 25 | 151 | .0974 | 19 | 23 | 13 | 23 | NR | 17 | 18 | .230 |
24 | Nebraska | .1354 | 16 | 23 | 414 | .1577 | 21 | 385 | .2484 | 28 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | .000 |
25 | Oregon State | .1042 | 13 | NR | 168 | .0640 | NR | 91 | .0587 | 20 | NR | 22 | 24 | 18 | 6 | 21 | .190 |
The only other team with a shot at stealing a spot from one of those two if they both stay perfect is No. 3 Oregon, which topped Florida State in both human polls. However, Oregon has a tougher schedule the rest of the way, which will give it a great chance both to sway voters and to take more control of the computers. Right now, we should expect Oregon to slip ahead at some point, provided neither loses.
Bad Gators won't help FSU. Oregon will leap them MT @ESPNCFB: #3 Oregon vs #2 FSU remaining schedule comparison --> pic.twitter.com/vHSoRA68De
— Pacific Takes (@PacificTakes) October 21, 2013
But that's getting way ahead of ourselves. All three teams have potential losses along the way, and any team in the rest of the top, say, 12 has a feasible chance of making it in, provided all that carnage wasn't contained to Week 8. An undefeated Alabama is in, and an undefeated Oregon is very likely in, but nobody's in yet.
On the undercard, Fresno State and Northern Illinois rank well within range of No. 16. This is important because if one can finish there or better and ahead of a BCS-conference champion, it will earn an automatic BCS bid. Likely American champion UCF is the team fans of BCS-busters should be watching. Otherwise, the little guys will have to climb all the way to No. 12 to make it in. Still, each is in relatively good shape either way.
Alabama has ranked either No. 1 or 2 for 13 of the last 16 weeks of the BCS standings, which covers the latter halves of 2011 and 2012. Florida State hasn't ranked this highly since 2000 and not in the top three since 2003.
What do you think?
How's the rest of the season line up? Who's too high? Who's too low? What will we be looking at next week?
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