If nothing else, the BCS rankings have always been good for a laugh, mixed in, of course, with all the screaming and sobbing.
Remember last year, when Florida State pushed its record to 9-1 with a nationally televised win at Virginia Tech? Jimbo Fisher was disgusted to see that his team didn’t budge an inch in the BCS poll with that victory, hovering in the same No. 10 spot as the week before.
“I think it stinks,” Jimbo said. “I think the BCS and how we go with all these computers … they’ve got to change how we pick the top teams in this country. It’s not working.”
Well, apparently it’s working now because Jimbo seems just fine with FSU checking in at No. 2 behind Alabama in the opening BCS poll of 2013. The coach detected no telltale stench in the system as he met with reporters Monday. In fact, it’s the computer component of the rankings formula and not the human voting factor that is giving FSU the necessary boost over No. 3 Oregon.
“I love the computers now,” Jimbo said with a chuckle, as if he weren’t really dead serious. “Whatever you think you have to have in it, just give me some consistency.”
The BCS machine isn’t built with such precision, which is one of the reasons it will be junked after this season and replaced by a four-team playoff field chosen by committee.
For the moment, however, we’re still working with a system in which nothing matters to an elite program but landing at No. 1 or No. 2 in the final rankings in December. That’s the only way into the national championship game, and that’s why FSU fans are flipping out over what mistakenly looks like a clear path to a title shot.
Here’s the thing. With all that wow comes a fair amount of weird.
If you’re a supporter of the Seminoles, it’s necessary to root as hard for Miami as you do for FSU this week. If the Hurricanes were to lay an egg against Wake Forest on Saturday, that would take all the punch out of Miami at FSU on Nov. 2. The BCS computers’ obsession with strength of schedule demands a monumental win or two, and Jimbo’s guys have already gotten all the boost they’re going to get out of that 51-14 demolition of Clemson the other night.
Switch it around and Miami needs the Seminoles to stay strong throughout the rest of the season, and the Florida Gators, too. The Hurricanes may be 6-0 and ranked No. 7 in the opening BCS order, but even a monumental upset at Tallahassee in a couple of weeks wouldn’t get them all the way to the top if everybody else on the schedule goes limp. All of this, of course, is dependent on the NCAA allowing Miami a postseason opportunity in the first place, which is expected to be announced Tuesday.
The primary lesson in all of this? What you see in this first of eight BCS standings for the season could be a mile from what you get.
The initial BCS release of 2007 was the wackiest of all.
Ohio State popped up at No. 1. No surprise.
South Florida debuted at No. 2. No way!
By the time the carnival ride of a regular season was finished, USF had lost three games and dropped all the way to 21st in the final BCS poll, utterly irrelevant. LSU, meanwhile, bubbled all the way up to No. 2 at the end, with a couple of losses no less, and the Tigers are the team that wound up beating Ohio State for the national championship.
Anybody remember how the opening BCS poll looked one year ago? Of course not, but Alabama was No. 1 and the Gators were No. 2, just ahead of Oregon. That’s right, the Gators. Talk about your teases.
So that’s about where FSU stands now, atop a royal house of cards. If everything goes just right, beginning with a perfect regular season and an ACC title for the Seminoles, Jimbo will be staring down the BCS computers again.
There are no guarantees here, other than knowing that the team that winds up No. 3 won’t even understand the numbers that ultimately crunched it.
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