2008
BCS Analysis
FINAL
By
Pete Fiutak
BCS Rankings |
Computer
Rankings
- BCS Analysis
Week 1 |
Week 2 |
Week 3 |
Week 4
|
Week 5
- Week 6 |
Week 7
- Texas or Oklahoma
... Who Deserved To Win The South?
You knew it
was coming, and as much as Texas, Utah, and USC fans wanted to
believe in a miracle, it's Oklahoma vs. Florida for the national
title.
And it wasn't even close.
|
The
Top 25
-
Expanded BCS Rankings
1. Oklahoma
2. Florida
3. Texas
4. Alabama
5. USC
6. Utah
7. Texas Tech
8. Penn State
9. Boise State
10. Ohio State
11. TCU
12. Cincinnati
13. Oklahoma St
14. Georgia Tech
15. Georgia
16. BYU
17. Oregon
18. Michigan State
19. Virginia Tech
20. Pitt
21. Missouri
22. Ball State
23. Northwestern
24. Boston College
25. Ball State |
The only hope
Texas had of cracking the top two was for 1) a slew of miffed
off human voters still angry that Oklahoma played for the Big 12
title despite losing to the Longhorns and 2) the computers to
somehow skew things back UT's way once the final formulas kicked
in.
In the end, not only didn't Texas have a realistic shot, it
wasn't even in the ballpark as Oklahoma won the No. 1 overall
spot going away, while Florida was a solid No. 2. USC and Utah
weren't in ten miles of the top two, either.
Basically, here's what you need to know about the final rankings
of the season...
1. Oklahoma rocketed up from No. 2 to No. 1 having been crowned
the No. 1 team by all six computer formulas as well as the
Coaches. The Sooners won the top spot by what amounted to a huge
margin, beating Florida 0.9757 to 0.9479, and they weren't even
close to being threatened by Texas.
2. Do the computers know something? Florida was No. 1 in the
Harris Poll and No. 2 in the Coaches' Poll, just one vote behind
OU, but the computers had no interest in the SEC champs. Only
one computer ranked Florida No. 2, one had the Gators third, and
three had Florida fourth. One computer, the Massey formula,
actually had the Gators fifth.
3. Alabama was a solid No. 4. That means in a Plus One format,
it would be Oklahoma vs. Alabama and Florida vs. Texas. USC
wasn't all that close to moving up to No. 4, and Alabama wasn't
anywhere near challenging Texas for the No. 3 spot.
4. The Boise State vs. Ohio State debate will live on. Boise
State earned the No. 9 spot by a relatively big margin, but the
Buckeyes got into the BCS from the No. 10 spot.
5. The biggest loser, by far, was Ball State, who plummeted from
No. 12 overall to No. 22 after losing to Buffalo. The Massey and
Sagarin formulas didn't even have the Cardinals in the top 25,
and the Anderson & Hester formula had them 25th.
6. The computers disagreed wildly on ACC champion Virginia Tech.
The Billingsley had the Hokies ranked 25th, while two formulas
had them 16th.
7. Three Mountain West teams Utah (6), TCU (11) and BYU (16)
were ranked in the top 16. Georgia Tech was the lone ACC team
ranked in the top 16, USC was the lone Pac 10 team, and
Cincinnati was the only Big East team higher than BYU. The
Mountain West ended up getting as many teams in the top 16 as
the SEC and had more than the Big Ten. Only the Big 12 had more.