Florida State was feeling pretty good about rallying for a late victory in a hostile environment at Virginia Tech on Thursday night.
Then the polls were released Sunday and 9-1 Florida State dropped two spots in The Associated Press Top 25 and held at No. 10 in the BCS, despite No. 9 Louisville losing and dropping out of the top 10.
“I think it stinks,” FSU coach Jimbo Fisher said. “I think the BCS and how we go with all these computers … they got to change how we pick the top teams in this country. It’s not working. We got to get the computers out of there.”
The Seminoles are ranked No. 6 in the Harris and USA Today Coaches’ polls, the two that factor into the BCS. Fisher’s complaint, though, is with the computers that continue to disrespect the Seminoles, mainly on the basis of their schedule.
Florida State is ranked between 14th and 33rd by the six computers that factor into the BCS, with an average of 18.75. Each computer has the Seminoles behind 9-1 Clemson, which FSU defeated 49-37 in September.
“Florida State’s computer rankings are putrid, and it’s because the ACC is terrible and their nonconference schedule included Murray and Savannah,” said Jerry Palm of CBSSports.com. “You almost have to plan a schedule this bad.”
Palm said FSU has the biggest discrepancy between the polls and computers “I’ve ever seen this late in the year.”
The Seminoles were forced to play Savannah State in the second week of the season after West Virginia backed out of its game in Tallahassee in January.
The data for the six computers is not uniform. Some include FCS (formerly Division I-AA) schools. Others do not. Games against FBS schools are treated differently.
All, though, are required by the BCS to ignore margin of victory, which is hurting Florida State. The Seminoles are second nationally with a 30.1 average margin of victory.
“It’s too much about who you play and not how you play,” Fisher said.
Florida State is No. 16 in Jeff Sagarin’s computer before the margin of victory is removed from the equation. FSU then falls to No. 33, the lowest of its computer rankings.
Sagarin, though, stands by FSU being 16th because of its strength of schedule, which he has at No. 90.
“The best I could make them would be 12th,” he said. “Look at the schedule they have played.”
Kenneth Massey’s computer has FSU at No. 26, behind 5-5 Missouri and 6-4 Vanderbilt.
The ACC has suffered for the last decade because of underachieving programs like FSU, Miami, Clemson and North Carolina. The only consistent winner has been Virginia Tech — but the Hokies’ eight-year string of double-digit wins will be snapped this season.
The ACC is ranked fifth or sixth (some have it behind the Big East) depending on the conference power ranking.
ESPN analyst Brock Huard said FSU should be higher than No. 10 and Clemson should be in the top 10. The Tigers are 11th in the BCS.
“I think Florida State and Clemson both are getting the raw end of the deal, but unfortunately the struggles throughout the (ACC) and the perception of the conference hurts both (teams),” Huard said.
Florida State could make a major move up the BCS rankings the next two weeks if it wins at Maryland on Saturday and beats Florida in Tallahassee on Thanksgiving weekend. The Gators are ranked sixth in the BCS and no lower than seventh in any of the polls. FSU could get an additional boost if Clemson beats 8-2 South Carolina on the same day.
South Carolina is No. 9 in the BCS, one spot ahead of FSU. The Gamecocks are No. 11 in the Harris and Coaches’ polls, but their average computer ranking is 8.75, about 10 points higher than FSU’s.
Barring a string of major upsets, Palm believes the highest FSU could climb in the BCS at the end of the season is to No. 5.
Fisher has FSU ranked No. 4 behind Kansas State, Oregon and Notre Dame in his vote in the Coaches’ poll. When college football’s four-team playoff system is implemented for the 2014 season, the teams will be selected by a human committee.
“I think it was better in the old days, when you did it by the eye test and you didn’t even have a championship game,” Fisher said.
“The human element has got to get back into this game or we’re going to ruin it. If we’re going to let computers tell us who’s the best team, we got issues, we got major problems.”
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