USC reclaims No. 1; Texas back at No. 2

[Walter Cronkite]

Texas' surprise run as the top-ranked team in the Bowl Championship Series standings ended after one week.

Southern California leapfrogged Texas for the top spot in the latest BCS standings released Monday.

The Trojans improved their BCS average to .9767, up .0011 from last week, following a 55-13 rout over Washington State on Saturday.

The Longhorns slipped to .9729, down .0034, after having to rally from a 19-point second-quarter deficit to beat Oklahoma State on the road, 47-28.

Texas remained first in the computer average, which comprises one-third of the BCS rankings. USC, which maintained comfortable leads atop the Harris Interactive and USA Today polls, is tied for second in the computer average at .940 with No. 3 Virginia Tech, which has a BCS average of .9292.

Alabama (.8695) and UCLA (.7874) moved up one spot apiece to fourth and fifth, respectively, following Georgia's 14-10 loss to Florida. The Bulldogs slipped from fourth to 11th.

Miami is sixth, followed by Penn State, Louisiana State, Florida State and Ohio State.

To be eligible for one of the four BCS bowl games, a team must have nine victories and finish in the top 12 in the final BCS standings.

The BCS national championship game will be held Jan. 4, 2006 at the Rose Bowl.

Source: AP

[AndySMC]

Degrees of "Unbeatens"?

Another season. Another SEC school poised to get screwed by the BCS computers. IF, and it's a huge IF, Alabama remains unbeaten, the list of victims will include five Top 25 teams: Florida, Tennessee, LSU, at Auburn, and Georgia in the SEC Championship. Throw in dangerous SEC road games at Ole Miss (playing their best game of the year) and South Carolina (coming off a near-upset of the Dawgs in Athens) and that's seven legitimate losses which the Tide sidestepped.

Compare that to the conference lightweights dominated by USC and Texas. Each played one quality non-conference on the road and each escaped within an inch of their BCS lives. Ask Carroll and Brown if they'd trade their Ohio State and Notre Dame games for a shot at eight annual SEC foes.

It all boils down to typical NCAA hypocrisy. No individual or group talks out of both sides of the mouth like the NCAA. Let a BYU or Utah or Boise State go undefeated and it's all about strength of schedule. Let a heavyweight like Auburn 2004 or, potentially, Alabama 2005 go undefeated and it's all about who's been at the top of the polls all year. So, at the end of the day, it's really all about who was #1 in August after all. Any coach who doesn't think pre-season polls mean a thing should look at the Trojans.