Every year, we here at BCS Know How publish postseason BCS rankings, what the BCS would look like if it were to come out after the conclusion of all of the bowl games.

All we try to do is to look at what the BCS would think of the teams after all is said and done.

Thankfully, most of the components of the BCS feel the same way – that postseason rankings are appropriate, we just compile those statistics into a new BCS ranking.

After Anderson and Hester finally released their postseason rankings yesterday, we can finally reveal the top 12 in the BCS Know How Postseason BCS Rankings.

For the formula, we replace the Harris Interactive Poll with the Associated Press as the Harris does not reveal postseason rankings.

Not surprisingly, the BCS National Champion Alabama Crimson Tide claimed a unanimous No. 1 vote throughout the BCS components.

Florida comes in close behind, reaffirming the belief that the SEC held the two best teams in the nation this year.

BCS darling Boise State and BCS runners-up Texas are a close No. 3 and 4, while No. 5 Rose Bowl champion Ohio State is well off the pace.

TCU, Iowa and Cincinnati round out the top eight, all bunched closely together. The Bearcats and Horned Frogs had been third and fourth in the final BCS rankings, but losses in BCS bowls hurt their cases at better final rankings positioning.

If you want to take a closer look at all of the final rankings, you can take a look at BCS Know How’s Postseason Rankings worksheet right HERE.

BCS Rankings

An entire season passed us by we waited for an upset, some kind of drama.

Finally we got a dramatic weekend, and an upset of the No. 1 team in the nation in the final weekend of the season, and the BCS bowls were finally announced after weeks of prognostication.

After upsetting the Florida Gators in the SEC Championship Game, the Alabama Crimson Tide secured a berth in the BCS National Title game, where they will meet the Texas Longhorns. The Longhorns needed a last-second field goal to clinch the Big 12 title and spot in the National Title game.

The two teams finish a convincing 1-2 in the final BCS rankings, with Cincinnati finishing third, but outside of striking distance.

The rest of the BCS bowl bids were filled rather predictably, in fact the ten teams that received BCS bowl bids were the teams that finished 1-10 in the final BCS rankings.

Falling to No. 5 after their loss in the SEC Championship Game, the Florida Gators were rewarded for an undefeated regular season with a Sugar Bowl bid where they will meet those Bearcats.

No. 4 TCU and No. 6 Boise State will meet in the Fiesta Bowl, a first for the non-BCS conferences – not only to play each other in a BCS bowl game – but also the first time ever that more than one non-BCS school was invited to the BCS party.

No. 7 Oregon and No. 8 Ohio State have known their fates for quite some time, and when the BCS rankings were released, it mattered little where they finished – the Rose Bowl will likely provide one of the best matchups of the bowl season.

No. 9 Georgia Tech will find themselves rewarded for their ACC Championship with a matchup with Big 10 resurgent Iowa, who finish tenth in the final BCS standings.

So the regular season is done, and now we enter what ESPN calls the most wonderful time of the year. Stay tuned to BCS Know How as we will provide previews and analysis in the coming days for all the bowl games.

Final BCS Rankings – December 6th

Oh what could have been.

We waiting weeks for this weekend to come, hoping that it would deliver the drama and intrigue that the rest of the season was missing, and it did not dissapoint.

Texas, playing in what was supposed to be a cakewalk of a Big 12 Championship Game instead needed instant replay on the clock and a 46-yard field goal that just sneaked in the uprights to clinch victory and a likely shot at the national title game.

Alabama and Florida were supposed to play in the season’s most intriguing game. Instead what we got was an Alabama romp, blowing out the Gators and likely clinching their shot at the national title.

So it’s likely that we’ll get that SEC Champ vs. Texas game when the last BCS standings are released tomorrow.

But it could have been much different.

If Texas had lost, we would have entered one of the messiest final BCS rankings in the system’s history, but we avoided that by the slimmest of margins.

So here’s our reality for tomorrow, and what we know so far:

• We know that Oregon and Ohio State will make the Rose Bowl game and continue the Big Ten vs. Pac-10 rivalry.
• We know that Cincinnati will receive a BCS bowl bid, we just don’t know from where.
• We know that Georgia Tech is going to get a bid to the Orange Bowl with their victory over Clemson in the ACC Championship Game, as the bowl and the conference have ties that allow for the conference champion to receive an automatic bid there.
• We are almost 100% sure that Alabama and Texas will meet for the national title game after winning every game they needed to in order to get to the biggest game of the season.
• We can also be pretty sure that Florida will receive a Sugar Bowl bid despite losing the SEC Championship Game, as the Sugar Bowl will likely want an SEC team despite the SEC Champ going to the National Title Game.
• Another thing that’s guaranteed: TCU will get a BCS bowl bid due to the BCS’s automatic bid qualifying policy for non-BCS schools.

So the six BCS conference bid are set, and two at-large bids are also nearly set in stone.

That leaves two openings. Iowa, Penn State, Boise State, Virginia Tech, LSU and BYU will all likely be eligible tomorrow.

It seems like the Big Ten teams that trail behind Ohio State; Iowa and Penn State, will be one of the at-large selections. The other selection cannot be a Big Ten team, but could be any of the other teams mentioned.

If logic holds up, Boise State would receive that bid, and we at BCS Know How project that they will in fact get that final bid.

Here’s a look at what the BCS standings might look like when they are released tomorrow:

Projected BCS Standings December 6th

We’ve been waiting the entire length of the college football season for a huge upset, but haven’t gotten one.

For all the boredom that that brings to the college football scene, the week seven BCS standings finally point to a final weekend of the season that could be supremely exciting.

Florida, Alabama and Texas occupy the top three spots as they have all season, and are set to play in season deciding games.

Florida and Alabama have known for quite some time that winning out during the regular season would allow for a national semifinal in the SEC Championship Game, and that’s exactly what we’re going to get, as a loss by either team would knock it out of the national title spots. A victory would send either team to the BCS National Championship Game in Pasadena, Calif.

Texas only needs to beat No. 22 Nebraska in order to punch their ticket to Pasadena for the title game, but after the Longhorns had some trouble with Texas A&M anything is still possible.

After that, things get a little more interesting.

Say, for instance, that Texas is shocked in the Big 12 Championship Game. Who would fill their spot?

No. 4 TCU and No. 5 Cincinnati have sat in the two spots directly behind the Longhorns for a few weeks now, but the Bearcats have slowly but surely crept closer and closer to the Horned Frogs during these weeks.

TCU has basically locked up a BCS bowl spot, but could they take the spot of the Longhorns should they falter? Or, should they beat Pitt on Saturday, will the BCS be untrusting of a non-BCS team in the national title game and jump the Bearcats over TCU and leave the state of Texas completely out of the national title game?

At No. 6 Boise State must feel left out in all of this, even as an undefeated team. There is no chance for them to make the national title game, and it still seems like a 50-50 proposition for a BCS bowl bid.

No year has come where two non-BCS schools have participated in the BCS, but this could be that year.

After Oklahoma State lost on Saturday, which certainly helped the Broncos cause, but there remains the strong possibility of another BCS conference team being taken ahead of the Broncos with an at-large selection

No. 7 Oregon will face No. 16 Oregon State for the Pac-10’s Rose Bowl bid and conference championship, playing for the rights to face No. 8 Ohio State.

No. 9 Iowa and No. 11 Penn State will likely also be battling it out in the press for a BCS at-large selection, as both are attractive candidates for the bowls with large national followings.

No. 10 Georgia Tech lost on Saturday to instate rival Georiga, but still can make a BCS bowl if they can beat Clemson in the ACC Championship Game next Saturday.

Until that time it’s sure to be a hectic projection-filled week as we approach the final weekend of the college football season.

You’ll want to stay tuned.

BCS Rankings – November 29th

We went into this weekend hoping for some upsets, and while we got a couple of interesting ones, it didn’t change a whole lot at the top of the BCS standings.

The upsets came in the final weekend of November, and the final full weekend of college football action as this unusually upset-free season comes to a close.

Georgia Tech – already having secured a spot in the ACC Championship Game – and knowing a BCS bowl bid is the best they could do, overlooked a very game Georgia team and fell to the Bulldogs in the rivalry game.

In Bedlam, Oklahoma State, who had a lot more riding on the game than Oklahoma did – looking for a BCS bowl at-large bid – slipped terribly, not able to score a single point and falling to the Sooners 27-0.

No. 9 Pittsburgh, who had been looking towards a Big East showdown with the Cincinnati Bearcats, obviously overlooked the Backyard Brawl, and fell to West Virginia on a last second field goal.

Texas and Alabama had some trouble finding victory over the long weekend, but neither actually lost. No harm, no foul, and the SEC Championship as a national semifinal holds true for a second consecutive year, as Florida and Alabama will face off to see who gets to represent the conference in the national title game. The loser of the game, although not happy, will likely still see a Sugar Bowl bid in their future.

Surprisingly, five of the six BCS conferences will hold “conference championship” games, although only three (Big 12, ACC and SEC) actually have official games with such a name.

The Pac-10 and Big East will feature matchups that will decide the conference’s regular season title winners and BCS bowls bids after this weekend’s action was not enough to decide either crown.

The Pac-10 will feature a Thursday Civil War between Oregon and Oregon State, the winner likely headed to the Rose Bowl. The Big East will see an undefeated Cincinnati and the aforementioned Pitt face off for the Big East crown.

But that is all the future, for right now all we can do is project this week’s BCS standings, which will be released after the slate of FOX NFL games tomorrow on the OT show:

Projected BCS Standings November 29th

With the well documented chalk-fest that this college football season has been, its no surprise that the sixth edition of the BCS rankings look a whole lot like the first five.

The only real changes came towards the middle of the BCS bowl eligibility line (Top 16). Oregon and Ohio State both see their rankings rise after both won important conference games, and seem destined to play one another in the Rose Bowl, with Ohio State having already booked their ticket for Roses last weekend.

Oregon can join the Buckeyes if they can beat Oregon State in their Civil War in less than two weeks. The winner of that game will represent the Pac-10 in the BCS, as it is unlikely that another Pac-10 team will be BCS bowl eligible.

Another interesting development, although not exactly important down the stretch is how close Alabama has crept towards Florida. Mostly on the strength of their computer rankings, the Crimson Tide have gained some ground in the BCS on the Gators, and now sit just .005 points behind the Gators. That distance would be equivalent to just 42 extra points in the Harris Interactive Poll, or 22 in the Coaches’ Poll.

Its likely that we will not see much change next week either, setting up a huge and very important December 5^th weekend where most of the BCS bowl bids will be decided and maybe we’ll finally get some upsets and a shakeup or two.

BCS Rankings – November 22nd

Sure, Thanksgiving isn’t until next week, but given the opportunity, the nation’s best teams feasted on much weaker opponents on Saturday – meaning yet another week will pass without any change at the top of the BCS.

The top four of the BCS took on four teams on Saturday with a combined 19 wins.

The team with the most wins of the four was an FCS team.

And Florida, Alabama, Texas and TCU reacted appropriately, pasting their opponents in all four games and keeping all of their hopes alive for a national title chance.

Little BCS noise was made at all this weekend, with the top team to lose being the LSU Tigers, who were already counted out of the BCS this year, seeing as though they would be a third SEC team at the party that could only allow two SEC teams in.

In fact, the most important news when it comes to the BCS this weekend came from Clemson and Kansas State – two teams not even ranked in the top 20 – who were both able to secure spots in their respective conference championship games.

Texas also clinched their spot in the Big 12 Championship Game against Kansas State with their win over Kansas, but that spot was long assumed to be going to the Longhorns anyways.

The Pac-10 title picture is now clear, as Oregon State and Oregon are the only teams with chances left to make it to the Rose Bowl after Oregon defeated Arizona and Cal beat Stanford to knock both teams out of contention.

With very little change at the top, the BCS again is going to look pretty familiar tomorrow, but there will be change at the No. 8 position, as the shaky LSU team finally lost.

Without any polling information, here is a quick stab at what the BCS top 8 might look like when released after the first slate of NFL games are complete tomorrow:

Projected BCS Standings November 22nd

Maybe Oklahoma State needing its third-string QB to make sure Colorado didn’t pull the upset late Thursday night was a good sign.

At least, that’s what we’re hoping for.

Truth be told, this season has been full of close upset possibilities around the country. Top teams down late or in close games with unranked opponents. But rarely have any of these close contests panned out into full-blown upsets.

In fact, the top three teams in the country: Texas, Alabama and Florida, were all considered top-five teams at the beginning of the season, definitely a rare occurrence during these past few years.

Furthermore, this weekend doesn’t shape up to be a nail-bitter filled slate of Saturday games. But maybe, just maybe, the fact that a 3-8 team nearly beat a BCS bowl eligible Cowboys squad is a good sign for the underdog – and they’re definitely going to need all the help they can get.

Non of the top three teams are playing a ranked opponent this weekend, actually only Texas is playing a FBS school without a sub-.500 record in Kansas (5-5). Alabama takes the weekend off with FCS Chattanooga and Florida welcomes 3-7 Florida International to the Swamp.

Doesn’t look too good for a major upset, huh?

How about traditional rivalries? They always seem to hold a good chance of a big upset.

Ohio State – Michigan is this weekend, but from the looks of things, people aren’t paying much attention or looking for an upset.

Usually the long standing rivalry creates more of a buzz in the college football world, but this weekend, with Michigan needing a win just to get bowl eligible and Ohio State already locked into the Rose Bowl, it just doesn’t hold a lot of importance, and the upset potential is quite low.

No. 4 TCU might be the best chance for a top-four upset this weekend, but their trip to Wyoming for a conference matchup against a 5-5 team still doesn’t look too promising.

TCU and Texas have combined to go 20-0 this year, a revelation for Texas football, but with all the winning going on by the top teams, its unlikely that the BCS National title game will feature a Texas football dream – an all-Texas BCS National Title game – as TCU is likely to be left out if the favorites keep winning.

If the Horned Frogs have any hope at all, they’re going to have to start wishing for losses, and soon. Like starting tomorrow.

Overall, there are a few important matchups that you can find in the schedule this weekend that have some sort of BCS or bowl implications, but with no good chance of a huge upset anywhere on the scoreboard, it looks like just another ordinary weekend of college football in this kind of ordinary college football season.

But we can always hope, right?

All eight teams of the BCS’s top eight remain unchanged this week, after the middle weekend in November held no surprises for the nation’s best.

Moving up into the ninth spot was Pittsburgh, the beneficiary of Iowa’s loss and of some national exposure from their game against Notre Dame. The Panthers’ entrance into the BCS top ten is the first time this year that the Big East has had two teams in the top ten, joining constant No. 5 Cincinnati.

Even the scores don’t see much change along the top of the standings, as the distance between Florida, Alabama and Texas remained rather unchanged from a week ago.

Also seeing great improvement was Ohio State, on the heels of their overtime victory over Iowa, but was unable to make their way into the top ten. Not to worry though, the Buckeyes are assured a Rose Bowl bid, and therefore don’t really need to worry much about final BCS standings.

Important progress has been made in the realm of at-large bids in this week’s BCS standings despite the lack of movement at the top.

USC’s third loss of the season kicked them out of the top 14, a necessary requirement for a BCS at-large bid, and opened the door a little more for two BCS buster schools to get at-large bids this year – which would be a first.

Penn State lingers at No. 14, who theoretically could be chosen above the Broncos for an at-large bid, but they will have to survive one final test at Michigan State next weekend.

Its unlikely that the Big 12, Big East or ACC will get an at-large bid, which leaves a few spots open for at-large selections, and hope for Boise State remains.

BCS Rankings – November 15th

To call this season of college football boring would be a terrible, terrible mistake.

To call this past weekend’s serving of college football boring – well that might be a pretty good assessment.

Another weekend goes by, and nothing seems to change in college football. In fact, this weekend, only one top ten team lost to an unranked opponent, No. 9 USC’s shocking home loss to Stanford.

Other than the Trojan egg laying at the LA Coliseum, favorites won out.

The most interesting storyline to come out of the weekend was probably that Ohio State claimed the first BCS bowl bid with their 27-24 overtime victory over Iowa. In clinching at least a share of the Big 10 conference title, the Buckeyes also hold the BCS bid tiebreaker, and will likely head to the Rose Bowl.

The weekend was supposed to be about a threat to TCU’s ascension to BCS glory. That didn’t exactly pan out.

Instead what we got was a really entertaining show from the Horned Frogs, enough that many might call for TCU to jump at least Texas in the next BCS standings. Will it happen?

Likely not, but expect the Horned Frogs to inch closer to the Longhorns in tomorrow’s BCS standings.

We’re inching closer to other BCS bowl bids filling up, especially in the ACC, where Georgia Tech clinched the ACC Coastal Division and a chance to win the conference’s bid for a likely Orange Bowl berth. Clemson is a step away from that game as well after CJ Spiller helped the Tigers win on Saturday.

In the Big East, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh both won, setting up an ultimate showdown on the regular season’s final weekend for the conference’s BCS bowl bid, if the two teams can make it there without a conference loss.

Texas, Alabama and Florida all continued their respective marches to their conference title games as well.

So the entire top eight won on Saturday, so tomorrow’s BCS will look mighty familiar to us all, except probably at the eighth spot, where Ohio State is likely to take over for LSU, who was pretty darn close to losing to Louisiana Tech on Saturday, and won’t find any help from the human element or the computer element for that surprisingly close result.

The Buckeyes on the other hand will get help in both areas for beating a previously adored Hawkeye team, especially in the computers.

Without any polling information, here is a quick stab at what the BCS top 8 might look like when released after the end of NFL action on FOX Sunday evening:

Projected BCS Standings November 15th