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| Wednesday, November 1 Nebraska falls to No. 4 ESPN.com news services | |||
| NEW YORK -- After moving to the top of
both major polls on Sunday, Oklahoma also claimed the No. 1 spot in the Bowl
Championship Series rankings released Monday.
The resurgent Sooners (7-0) beat then-No. 1 Nebraska 31-14 on
Saturday and moved up one spot in the BCS rankings, which are
designed to pit the nation's top two teams in a national title
game, this year in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 3.
Oklahoma was ranked first in both the Associated Press and
ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll released Sunday.
The BCS averages the two subjective national polls into one of
five components that are added to form the final value that
determines the order of the rankings, in which lower scores are
better. Oklahoma has a total of 2.48, while Virginia Tech
(8-0) is second at 7.15.
Virginia Tech (8-0) moved up one spot after struggling past
Pittsburgh and this week will visit Miami (6-1), which fell two
spots to fifth in the BCS after a 42-31 win over Louisiana Tech.
Miami is third in both the AP and coaches' poll but is fifth
with a 10.37 BCS ranking, slightly ahead of a 10.18 for Nebraska
(7-1).
Florida State (8-1) rose two spots to third with a total of
7.93.
Rounding out the top eight spots in the BCS poll are Florida
(7-1) and Pac-10 rivals Oregon (7-1) and Washington (7-1).
Oregon has the inside track at the Rose Bowl due to a win over
Washington.
TCU (7-0), the nation's other unbeaten, is just ninth in the BCS
due to a weak schedule. Purdue (7-2), Oregon State (7-1),
Michigan (6-2), Clemson (8-1), Notre Dame (6-2) and Mississippi
State (5-2) complete the poll.
Clemson dropped six spots after a loss to Georgia Tech last
week.
Losses and strength of schedule are the other components, along
with the average of eight computer rankings, which include The
New York Times, Anderson-Hester/Seattle Times, Jeff Sagarin-USA
Today, Richard Billingsley, the Dunkel Index, Kenneth Massey,
Matthews/Scripps-Howard and David Rothman.
The highest of the eight computer ratings is discarded before
the average is calculated.
A loss results in the addition of one BCS standings point.
Strength of schedule takes into account the win-loss record of a
school's opponents and the marks of the opposition's opponents
at the end of the season. The opponents' record is two-thirds
of the BCS mark and the opposition's opponents comprise the
other third.
When the national strength of schedule placing is determined, it
is divided by 25 to give the BCS point total, which favors low
numbers.
All four of the individual component numbers are added together
to come up with the final BCS standings number. The team with
the lowest number in the BCS index is the top team.
In addition to the Orange Bowl, the other BCS games are the Rose
Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl. Automatic bids will go to the
conference winners in the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big
12, Pac-10 and SEC.
To qualify for the BCS, other Division I-A teams must win at
least nine regular-season games, not including those against
I-AA schools or exempt games. | ALSO SEE
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