USA Today Coaches’ Poll

Harris Interactive Poll

After spending a the first two BCS weeks looking up at two SEC teams, Texas took full advantage of a Alabama off week to impress the voters, and claimed the number two spot in the third BCS rankings of the year.

Still, this does not do anything to affect the much predicted funnel effect of a possible SEC Championship matchup between the two SEC teams, the Florida Gators and the Crimson Tide. If both teams are to make it that far, it is more than likely that the winner of the December 5^th matchup will automatically be entered into the BCS National Championship Game.

For now, Texas rests easy, knowing that completing an undefeated record of their own will be much easier, as they do not have a strong remaining schedule, but are right where they need to be if they want a berth in the championship game.

Iowa retains its fourth overall spot, but loses some of the good fortune it had seen from the computers, instead the math went the way of the Gators, but the Hawkeyes remain second in the computer rankings.

No. 5 Cincinnati follows the Hawkeyes, replacing USC, who falls all the way to No. 12 this week. The Bearcats are also the beneficiaries of some computer help, ranked fifth in the computers, while the coaches no longer see the Bearcats as viable, ranking them seventh.

TCU and Boise State, the two BCS busters jockeying for position come in at No. 6 and No. 7, respectively. TCU fends off Boise State for another week, taking one more step towards a BCS bowl bid, although Boise did tighten the gap slightly, mostly from computer help, after Oregon’s victory over USC improved the Broncos’ strength of schedule by a large percentage.

The Ducks follow the BCS busters at No. 8, up two spots from last week on the strength of both a human and computer bump after handily defeating USC on Saturday.

LSU and Georgia Tech, once defeated BCS conference members still have a slight chance of shooting up the rankings, especially next week when LSU goes against Alabama, but both need a ton of help.

Penn State and USC round out the top twelve, and are both out of national title contention.

Something to look for in the BCS rankings now will be how the remaining schedules of both Boise State and TCU effect their positioning. Boise is currently .0145 points behind the Horned Frogs, a margin that can easily be made up in the computer rankings in the coming weeks.

Also, the muddled middle – between No. 4 Iowa and No. 9 LSU – is separated by less than .2 points, which means anything can happen in the coming weeks.

USA Today Coaches’ Poll

Harris Interactive Poll

The final college football Saturday in October just so happens to fall on Halloween this year, and in that spirit, here’s your weekend college football preview, as guided by the Halloween classic, “Thriller” by Michael Jackson.

“It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark”

No reason not to start from the beginning.

After this weekend, just five weeks will remain before the final BCS standings are released. And for teams that need losses for them to even have a shot of competing for a national title, the clock creeps ever closer towards midnight, sealing them out of the BCS National Title Game.

That evil lurking is the possibility that some of those teams, like TCU, Boise State, Cincinnati and Iowa are in danger of finishing unbeaten, and still missing out on the national title game. They will all have to start putting on a show for the nation, and soon, if any of them hope to be playing on January 7^th.

“Now is the time for you and I to cuddle close together, yeah. All through the night I’ll save you from the terror on the screen”

Alabama and Florida are like a happy couple atop the BCS standings right now; seemingly nothing can be done to break them up. They can cuddle as close together as they’d like, without threatening what will likely be their final date, December 5^th at the Georgia Dome for the SEC Championship.

It might be tough for either team to save the other from that “terror on the screen,” the remaining SEC schedule for both teams, but all signs point to a messy breakup just before Christmas-time.

“Creatures crawl in search of blood, to terrorize y’alls neighborhood”

Creatures, in this case in-conference opponents with bad records, with axes to grind and noise to make, could make this Halloween weekend a scary time for in the neighborhoods of the BCS’s top teams.

Indiana (4-4, 1-3 Big 10) comes into Iowa City to face off against the No. 4 Iowa Hawkeyes, in search of blood, and a victory. The Hawkeyes are already injured (although probably not yet bleeding), as they lost top running back Adam Robinson last week for the season.

Both No. 6 TCU and No. 7 Boise State also welcome opponents with uninspiring records into their neighborhoods, afraid of what a shocking loss might mean.

“And grizzly ghouls from every tomb are closing in to seal your doom”

Teams resting on the idea that they’ve secured something in this topsy-turvy college football season beware. Here are two chances for the top of the BCS to topple, against tough, ghoulish-like opponents closing in to seal a terrible fate.

No. 5 USC heads up to Eugene, Oregon to take on the equally scary No. 10 Oregon Ducks, who could not only knock the Trojans out of the “one or two mistakes and we’re in!” seat, and claim it for their own.

No. 3 Texas – set up to take advantage of that messy breakup between Alabama and Florida – could see some scare tactics from No. 14 Oklahoma State, and fall victim to their toughest remaining opponent before their schedule gets a little less intimidating.

“Thriller, thriller night.”

All told, this may just be one of the most thrilling college football nights of the season, the fact that it happens to be on Halloween makes it that much better, for no mere mortal can resist the evil of the thriller. (Insert creepy Vincent Price laughter)

Enjoy.

Note: The Week 3 (November 1st) BCS standings will be released during FOX’s “The OT” post-NFL wrap up show at around 7:30 PM EST. You can see a full schedule for the releases at the BCS Guru.

The first BCS standings are nearly a week old. Teams now know the climb that faces them over the next seven weeks if they are to make it to the national title game.

That climb starts tomorrow.

Almost every single team ranked in the top 25 will face a tough in-conference match up this weekend, highlighted by four of the top five BCS teams facing tough road games in hostile environments.

No. 1 Florida will travel to Mississippi State, to face a Bulldog team that will be no pushover. And from the looks of the past few Gator SEC games, a few mistakes may send Florida tumbling down the BCS rankings if they aren’t careful.

No. 4 Boise State risks its undefeated record at Hawaii, never an easy place to claim victory, against the Rainbow Warriors in a tough WAC matchup.

No. 5 Cincinnati travels to Louisville to take on a Cardinal team looking for any sort of redemption, trying to reclaim the Big East glory that has become all Cincinnati’s in the past two years.

But the real test of the weekend will be the No. 3 Texas Longhorns, already with doubts cast about them already due to poor showings against Oklahoma and Colorado in two of their opening Big 12 conference games.

No. 2 Alabama, playing at home, doesn’t come up all roses, facing a Tennessee team looking for a way to make some national noise in coach Lane Kiffin’s first year.

But the game of the weekend would find itself in the most unlikely of places, Provo, Utah. BYU and TCU will face off in a battle of two of the three BCS busting hopes of the nation (the other being Boise’s bid). For TCU, a victory could spell increased support from both the computers and the human element. For BYU, a return to the top ten could be in order after falling following a loss to Florida State.

This week following the initial release of the BCS standings always presents intriguing storylines. How will teams that felt they have been slighted by the computers in the first iteration of the BCS iteration react?

Something to look for in the coming weeks is the effect of conference scheduling on the computer rankings. For those conferences with multiple teams in the top 15 (Pac 10, SEC, Big 12) the conference portion of those highly ranked teams may provide a boost in the computers.

For those conferences with lower turnout in the BCS rankings (Big 10, Big East, ACC, BCS buster conferences), the coming weeks may kick out the stool from under their high rankings, as many will take a shot from the computers, and see their averages decline.

But that’s all discussion for the future, for now, lets enjoy a weekend in which 24 of the top 25 AP teams are in action, and see just what the BCS standings look like on Sunday.

Maybe we’ll see something completely different.

The BCS rankings cause controversy. There’s no debating that.

But usually that controversy doesn’t come until at least a few weeks into the BCS rankings, when people can see a trend that they might disagree with.

This year however, there may be some griping to do just after one BCS rankings, following one of the most exciting and jam-packed action weekends of the college football season.

The top three of the first BCS standings may give some Alabama fans some pain, as the Crimson Tide sit at No. 2 on the first rankings, although the Associated Press poll, which is no longer a part of the BCS, had the Tide at No. 1 in their poll.

Alabama sits behind Florida, who has struggled to win the past few weeks, but in the eyes of the voters and computers, is strong enough to warrant the .046 point lead over the Tide.

Interestingly, Boise State and Cincinnati follow Texas (No. 3) in the BCS standings. Boise State gets healthy love from the computers and the human element, but Cincinnati is able to jump USC, who find themselves the victim of a poor computer ranking, and at No. 7 in the first BCS rankings.

In between the Bearcats and Trojans you can find the class of the Big 10, Iowa. The Hawkeyes also got love from the computers that was not shown in the human element, as they ranked seventh and eighth in the two polls, but find themselves at No. 6 in the BCS, just .0001 points behind Cincinnati for that No. 5 spot.

Ready to pounce on the BCS buster opportunity if Boise State is to falter, TCU enters the rankings at No. 8, a guaranteed BCS bowl berth position for the Horned Frogs if the Broncos are unable to win out.

LSU and Miami, each with one loss on their record round out the top 10, and will definitely need some major help to climb back up the rankings, where they had stood earlier this season.

Oregon, whose only loss came to Boise State, comes in at No. 11 followed by Georgia Tech, whose shocking victory over previous No. 4 Virginia Tech dropped the Hokies out of the top 12, and let the Yellow Jackets make an appearance in the year’s first BCS top 12.

BCS Rankings – October 18th

USA Today Coaches’ Poll

Harris Interactive Poll

As we approach day zero, where the BCS rankings are finally and officially revealed to the world, BCS Know How’s projected BCS rankings are taking a turn.

Yes, sure the “BCS Know How Projected BCS Standings” were fun, taking a good guess at what I thought they might be. And truthfully I wasn’t far off. Sure I knew that Florida surprisingly enough wouldn’t be #1 if the BCS was released, but I left them there because of their overwhelming domination of the human element of the BCS.

Well, now that five of the six computer rankings have been released, the reality has set in. The computers just do not love Florida. At all.

Yet with the addition of the fifth computer rankings, who ALL claim LSU as the best team in the nation, and seem to overwhelmingly prefer Alabama and Virginia Tech over Florida as well, I am forced to change it to a more realistic calculation.

The new standings can be found below and at BCSKnowHow.com and all pages on the site.

It’s very surprising to see three SEC teams lined up all in a row at numbers one through three, but that just proves the strength in opinion while simultaneously proving the SEC’s strength in numbers.

The SEC has been and continues to be a dominant conference, and yes, after this weekend, the rankings are sure to change, but for now the Southeastern Conference ain’t nothing to mess with.

Without any further ado. The projected BCS rankings, within a 94.166% confidence: