BCS Standings: Initial Analysis Of The Week 9 BCS Rankings

A quick review of the results of the in Week 9 BCS rankings:

Auburn taking the top spot isn’t surprising because it happened; it’s because it happened now. The Tigers have always had the strength of schedule over the long run to be strong contenders for a BCS Championship Game berth, but it’s clear that the computers liked Auburn’s win over LSU on Saturday enough to elevate them past Oregon, Boise State, and TCU. It’s also telling that Auburn has a .03-point gap on second-ranked Oregon, while Oregon doesn’t lead fourth-ranked TCU by that much.

Missouri’s swift ascent is only a surprise because the Tigers took down Oklahoma in Columbia. With that win, though, Missouri virtually assumed Oklahoma’s place as the Big 12’s BCS frontrunner, and though the Tigers didn’t have the early-season esteem or early-season schedule to top these rankings like Oklahoma did, they should be dangerous for the rest of the fall.

It’s a bit surprising, though, that Oklahoma did not fall out of the top ten, and that the Sooners are ahead of every one-loss team but Alabama. The Sooners have a lot of work to do and very little meat on a schedule to do it against, but there’s still a chance this team could play for a national championship this year.

The BCS standings in general loves the Big 12: five teams from the conference are ranked, and four show up in the top 17 of the BCS rankings. That’s a stronger core than the SEC’s weaker showing; though Auburn tops the Week 9 standings and Alabama heads the one-loss pack, the other three ranked SEC teams, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Mississippi State, are 19th, 20th, and 21st.