USC drops in polls; USF, BC split #2 honors

After following up its loss to Stanford with a near-loss to Arizona, USC has dropped in the polls -- quite justifiably, in my view -- despite the continuing rash of upsets all around them. USC fell from #10 to #13 in the AP poll (leapfrogged by Kentucky, Virginia Tech and Arizona State), and from #7 to a tie for #9 in the coaches poll (leapfrogged by West Virginia and South Carolina). Given that they've looked certifiably godawful for three consecutive weeks, and given that Nebraska has now been exposed to the point that it no longer qualifies as a quality win (let alone a "signature" one), I think the Trojans should fall even further (I have them #16), but at least the new rankings more closely approximate reality than last week's.

Ohio State is #1 in both polls. It's far closer to a unanimous decision in the coaches poll (56 of 60 first-place votes, with just 1 for Boston College and 3 for South Florida) than in the AP poll (50 of 65, with the remaining votes breaking down thusly: USF 11, BC 1, Oklahoma 1, LSU 1, Arizona State 1). South Florida is #2 in the AP poll, #3 in the coaches; Boston College is the reverse of that, #2 in the coaches and #3 in the AP. Proving Texasyank's point that "one-loss is the new undefeated," Oklahoma and LSU are #4 and #5 in both polls. After that, it's mass chaos from #6 to #13. But undefeated Arizona State is #12 in both polls, and undefeated Kansas is #15 in both. Undefeated Hawaii is #17 in the AP, #16 in the coaches. Oh, and Michigan is ranked again -- #24 in the AP poll. Hot! Hot! Hot!

P.S. Prediction: South Florida will lose at Rutgers on Thursday. These Big East weeknight games on ESPN have not been kind to favorites (or to road teams) the last two years, and the Scarlet Knights (and their fans) will be pumped -- they may have dropped from the polls, but they've still got a conference championship to win, and this game is a must-win for them to achieve that goal. And now, they can beat the nation's #2 team in the process! As Louisville beat West Virginia, as Rutgers beat Louisville, as Cincinnati beat Rutgers, and as South Florida beat West Virginia, so will Rutgers beat South Florida. Round and round the Big East's cycle of cannibalization goes; where it ends, nobody knows.

UPDATE: The first official BCS standings are out, and as expected, South Florida is #2 (behind #1 tOSU) because the computers love the Bulls, due to their strength of schedule and quality wins (and because the dumb BCS computers don't understand the value of preseason polls, nor do they recognize the "vague notions of superiority based on the size, recognition and historical success of a program" that human polls value so highly). The computers love South Florida so much, in fact, that they ranked the Bulls #1 in the country. But because Ohio State is a runaway #1 in both human polls, they get the edge over USF in the BCS standings even though they're just #5 in the computers. On the other hand, Boston College, #2 in both of the polls that matter of BCS purposes, is just #7 in the computers, and thus ends up #3 in the BCS.

Comments

[Sandy Underpants]

Calm down... there's nothing to see here folks... The rankings this season have, and will continue to change each and every week. USF, BC and Ohio St. are all going down in their next games and then what? LSU is also going to lose atleast one more game, it's really total chaos. At this point, there's no way to get an undisputed BCS champion.

With regards to SC-- I haven't watched a game since that awful Washington performance. Just a week before that would anyone think that Notre Dame vs. USC was even going to be close? Now I believe Notre Dame should be favored to win. In my heart I think SC should be ranked higher than 13 or 9 or whatever, looking at the teams ranked ahead of them and using all the injuries as an excuse, but whatever the rankings are, there's no doubt clarity won't arrive until the last game of the regular season is finished.

[DUP]

Interesting computer polls so far...

http://www.tellshowbcs.com/CP.html

[DUP]

How 'bout this?

http://www.tellshowbcs.com/bcsc.html

[anon]

ND is #78 in the BCS. Not bad!

[Brendan]

That puts them behind three of their final four opponents: #51 Air Force, #52 Navy and #71 Stanford. Only #90 Duke is ranked below the Irish.

[David K.]

Sandy, as much as SC has struggled, the Irish have looked craptacular and I don't doubt that SC will win that one. If SC had been playing like this last year maybe ND could have had it, but not the way the Irish are playing this year.

[David K.]

BTW I can understand a number one vote for LSU, but chOkeLahoma?