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Musical chairs Nebraska rises to BCS No. 1, Oklahoma falls to No. 2
Updated: Monday October 29, 2001 4:26 PM
By Stewart Mandel, CNNSI.com A wild weekend of upsets in college football shook up the BCS standings -- just not at the top. Nebraska and Oklahoma remain No. 1 and 2, just flip-flopped following the Huskers' 20-10 victory over the rival Sooners on Saturday. Nebraska (9-0) has 2.02 BCS points, Oklahoma (7-1) 7.59. Miami (6-0) is an extremely close No. 3, only 0.12 points behind the Sooners, followed by Michigan (6-1) and Texas (7-1). Surprising Stanford (5-1) soared to No. 7 this week following its upset of UCLA, with Tennessee (5-1), Florida (6-1), UCLA (6-1) and Oregon (7-1) rounding out the Top 10.
A week ago, the Hurricanes -- No. 1 in both the AP and coaches polls -- were worried about getting jilted by the BCS once again. But following losses by Oklahoma, UCLA and Virginia Tech -- and with either the Sooners or Huskers bound to lose again if the two meet in the Big 12 championship -- Miami is essentially guaranteed a spot in the Rose Bowl if it can win out. "I don't see how a one-loss team [could pass them]," said Jerry Palm of collegebcs.com. "Miami controls its own destiny, as do Oklahoma and Nebraska." The Hurricanes, ranked No. 1 in the AP media and USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll, moved from fourth to third after a 45-3 win over West Virginia last Thursday night. The Huskers and Sooners are ranked 2-3 in the AP media and coaches' polls.The BCS standings determine which teams play in the BCS' national championship game in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 3. The rankings are based on a formula that incorporates the AP media and coaches' polls, eight computers, strength of schedule, won-lost record and bonus points for big wins. In addition to Oklahoma, five other teams in last week's 15-team BCS standings lost over the weekend -- UCLA, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Washington State and South Carolina. Nebraska had 2.02 points in the BCS standings -- 2 for poll average, 1 for computer-rank average, 0.32 for strength-of-schedule, zero for losses and a 1.3-point bonus deduction for beating Oklahoma. The bonus award -- new this season -- is based on a sliding scale from 1.5 points for beating a first-place team down to .1 for a win over the 15th-place team. The bonus is awarded after the first four elements are added. Without the bonus-point element, Miami would have been second and Oklahoma third - 7.71 points to OU's 8.69 points. Ironically, the bonus-point system was devised in the aftermath of Miami being left out of last year's title game in favor of Florida State, a team the Hurricanes beat during the season. Oklahoma had 7.59 points -- 3.5 for poll average, 3.83 for computer rank, .036 for strength of schedule, 1 for losses and a 1.1-point deduction for beating Texas earlier this season. Miami had 7.71 points -- 1 for poll average, 3.67 for computer rank, 3.04 for strength of schedule, zero for losses and zero bonus point deductions. Stanford, fresh off consecutive victories over two undefeated teams, now find themselves in the thick of the national title race, despite standing only No. 13 in the coaches' Top 25 poll. "The polls are slower to react than the computers, so if you don't have any preseason expectations and you go out and have a pretty good year like Stanford, it takes longer for the polls to rank you as high as the computers, said Palm. "I think its especially hard for a team like Stanford that doesn't have the name recognition of, say, UCLA."A team ranked lower in the BCS than in the polls is Florida, but with remaining games against South Carolina, Florida State, Tennessee and possibly the SEC championship, the Gators are far from out of things. "Conceivably, they could work themselves up ahead of Texas and whoever gets beat in [the Big 12 title game]," said Palm. "They could end up being the highest-ranked one-loss team." This week's schedule includes few games that would appear in advance to have BCS implications. The biggest pits No. 6 Stanford and No. 11 Washington. And No. 4 Michigan travels to rival Michigan State (4-2). The top three teams all face cakewalks. The Huskers play Kansas (2-5), the Sooners face Tulsa (1-6) and the 'Canes host Temple (2-5). The final BCS standings will be released Dec. 9.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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