auburn tigers

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BCS Know How’s Postseason BCS Simulation

With the bowl season complete, the time again comes for our annual postseason BCS rankings.

Unfortunately, it seems as though Jeff Sagarin has not released a postseason set of rankings, however all five other computers have. As in years past, we will substitute the AP Poll for the Harris Poll as the Harris does not reveal a postseason rankings.

Sagarin’s delay has caused a delay on our end as well, but here’s a set of rankings anyways.

The same formula that the BCS uses will be utilized here, except we use all five computer rankings.

Mostly, this is just for fun, a good look at what the BCS standings would look like if they were released after the end of the season.

Not surprisingly, BCS national champions Auburn comes in on top, well ahead of the rest of the field. TCU finishes second in a fantastic showing for a non-AQ school.

Oregon drops to No. 3 following their BCS National Championship Game loss to the Tigers, and are followed closely by Pac-10 counterpart Stanford at No. 4.

Postseason BCS Rankings

Rank Team BCS Score
1 Auburn Tigers .9990
2 TCU Horned Frogs .9444
3 Oregon Ducks .9274
4 Stanford Cardinal .8725
5 Ohio State Buckeyes .8304
6 Oklahoma Sooners .7548
7 LSU Tigers .7370
8 Boise State Broncos .7177
9 Wisconsin Badgers .6633
10 Alabama Crimson Tide .6370
11 Arkansas Razorbacks .5977
12 Oklahoma State Cowboys .5921
13 Nevada Wolfpack .5407
14 Michigan State Spartans .4941
15 Virginia Tech Hokies .4045
16 Mississippi State Bulldogs .3794

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Final BlogPoll Ballot

Take it as you will, but not voting for Auburn is silly.

SB Nation BlogPoll Top 25 College Football Rankings

BCS Know How Ballot – Week 16

Rank Team Delta
1 Auburn Tigers Arrow_up 1
2 TCU Horned Frogs Arrow_up 1
3 Oregon Ducks Arrow_down -2
4 Stanford Cardinal Arrow_up 1
5 Ohio St. Buckeyes Arrow_up 1
6 Alabama Crimson Tide Arrow_up 2
7 Wisconsin Badgers Arrow_down -3
8 Boise St. Broncos Arrow_down -1
9 Oklahoma Sooners Arrow_up 1
10 LSU Tigers Arrow_up 2
11 Arkansas Razorbacks Arrow_down -2
12 Nevada Wolf Pack Arrow_up 2
13 Oklahoma St. Cowboys Arrow_up 3
14 Michigan St. Spartans Arrow_down -3
15 Virginia Tech Hokies Arrow_down -2
16 Mississippi St. Bulldogs Arrow_up 5
17 Florida St. Seminoles Arrow_up 6
18 Missouri Tigers —
19 Texas A&M Aggies Arrow_down -2
20 Nebraska Cornhuskers Arrow_down -5
21 Maryland Terrapins —
22 Utah Utes Arrow_down -2
23 Central Florida Knights —
24 Tulsa Golden Hurricane —
25 Iowa Hawkeyes —
Dropouts: West Virginia Mountaineers, Hawaii Warriors, Connecticut Huskies, South Carolina Gamecocks

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

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Pretty self-explanatory, rip away if you’d like.

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Auburn Nabs First BCS National Championship

With their 22-19 victory on Monday night, the Auburn Tigers won their first-ever BCS national championship and capped a 14-0 season full of exciting games with one more against the Oregon Ducks in Glendale, Arizona.

Cam Newton and the Tigers did just enough Monday night to squeak by the Ducks in what was supposed to be a high scoring affair, but was sloppy to start.

A few three-and-outs along with a string of turnovers on both sides had the offense-hungry fans a little impatient early, but both squads were able to muster some offense after shaking the early rust.

In the end it was Auburn running back Michael Dyer who set up Wes Byrum’s game-winning 19-yard field goal with no time left on the clock that gave the Tigers their first perfect season since 2004, where they were famously left out of the BCS title game.

This year, afforded the opportunity to play for a national title, the Tigers did not disappoint.

Your 2010-11 BCS National Champions are the Tigers of Auburn, capping yet another exciting college football season.

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BlogPoll Week 14: Unconvinced

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t learn a whole lot from the ACC or Big 12 Championship Games. Both teams looked both good and bad at times. So I’ll give the winners slight bumps, but for the most part, I can’t say it changes much of my opinion.

The SEC and MAC Championship Games did hold some eye openers though, like maybe Northern Illinois and South Carolina aren’t as consistent as we thought.

Last ballot until post-bowl season.

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What I’m Thinking:

  • So Oklahoma and Virginia Tech are both up one spot.
  • South Carolina down bid along with Northern Illinois after their aforementioned losses in championship games.
  • I can’t find a reason to drop Nebraska past Oklahoma State or Texas A&M even with the loss.
  • Florida State only down two spots post-ACC Championship Game.
  • Just one new team this week: Connecticut!!! Yes, after projection the Huskies to make a BCS bowl before the season started and ranking them as high as the mid-teens in the preseason ballot, the Huskies make a return appearance in my ballot. The Huskies are on their way to the Fiesta Bowl and are not ranked in the BCS standings — a first.
  • Conference Breakdown: SEC (6), Big 12 (5), WAC (3), Big Ten (3), Pac-10 (2), ACC (2), MWC (2), Big East (2).

So what do you think? Missing anyone? Giving anyone too much/too little credit? Let me know!

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Harris Interactive Poll Week 14: Auburn Leaps Oregon For No. 1

Following their dominating victory over South Carolina in the SEC Championship Game, the Auburn Tigers overtook the Oregon Ducks in the season’s final Harris Interactive Poll.

The Ducks had a blowout victory of their own over instate rival Oregon State, however voters were more impressed with Auburn’s body of work, which helped the Tigers make their way to the BCS No. 1 spot tonight.

The Harris Poll was held until the release of the BCS standings in order to build suspense, but it was easy to determine that Auburn and Oregon would be on their way to the title game.

Not much other movement was evident in the Harris Poll, although some teams saw their support rise and fall.

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Harris Interactive College Football Poll – December 5th

Rank Team Votes Share of Vote
1 Auburn Tigers 2809 .986
2 Oregon Ducks 2773 .973
3 TCU Horned Frogs 2613 .917
4 Wisconsin Badgers 2443 .857
5 Stanford Cardinal 2421 .849
6 Ohio State Buckeyes 2293 .805
7 Michigan State Spartans 2104 .738
8 Arkansas Razorbacks 1992 .699
9 Oklahoma Sooners 1926 .676
10 Boise State Spartans 1800 .632
11 LSU Tigers 1625 .507
12 Virginia Tech Hokies 1623 .569
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2011 BCS Bowl Matchups

The 2011 BCS bowl matchups have been announced, with the long-awaited Auburn-Oregon BCS National Championship Game highlighting a slate of five marquee BCS bowl games.

The BCS will begin as it usually does, with the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, followed by the Fiesta Bowl that night.

The Fiesta Bowl and Sugar Bowl will played on January 3 and January 4 respectively, with the title game not coming our way until January 10th.

Represented are the champions of all six BCS conferences, the MWC conference, the Pac-10 runner up, the Big Ten runner up and one of two SEC teams to finish 10-2 but miss out on the opportunity to play in the SEC Championship Game.

Here is your official schedule:

Click bowl names for BCS Know How previews!

BCS National Championship Game

Glendale, Arizona. January 10th, 2011

Auburn Tigers
vs.

Oregon Ducks

Comment: There were stumbles and potential pitfalls on the way, but ever since the initial unpredictability of the early part of the 2010 season, the Ducks and Tigers returned a sense of stability to the top of the rankings — and will meet in Glendale as the two best teams in the country.

The champions of the SEC and Pac-10 respectively, Auburn and Oregon have ruled atop the BCS rankings these past few weeks and put exclamations on their fantastic seasons with dominating performances on the final weekend of the year, and set up to potentially give us one of the most exciting BCS National Championship Games in memory.

Rose Bowl

Pasadena, California. January 1st, 2011

Wisconsin Badgers
vs.

TCU Horned Frogs

Comment: Two teams who have a legitimate claim at being the “hottest” team in the country as the season finishes will have to make do with an invitation to the most prestigious bowl on the BCS slate, the Rose Bowl.

Wisconsin gets to play in Pasadena on the strength of a Big Ten tiebreaker and a strong showing throughout the season, while TCU takes advantage of the much-discussed non-AQ clause in its first year and will join the Badgers on New Year’s Day.

Fiesta Bowl

Glendale, Arizona. January 1st, 2011

Oklahoma Sooners
vs.

Connecticut Huskies

Comment: Few if any prognosticators saw Connecticut as a viable threat to make their way to a BCS bowl in the 2010 season, but here the Huskies are — champions of the Big East at 8-4 overall and headed to Glendale for the Fiesta Bowl.

Waiting for the Huskies will be the Oklahoma Sooners, who will fulfill the Big 12’s contract with the Fiesta Bowl as the conference champion. The Sooners will be looking to break a string of poor performances in BCS bowls following successful seasons and the Huskies will be their next opportunity to do so.

Orange Bowl

Miami, Florida. January 3rd, 2011

Virginia Tech Hokies
vs.

Stanford Cardinal

Comment: South Beach, long the home of a January Orange Bowl between two East Coast teams will see a surprise visit from cross-country invaders Stanford, who automatically qualified for one of the four at-large BCS bowl bids on the strength of their No. 4 finish in the final BCS standings.

The Virginia Tech Hokies will be less of a surprise entrant here, playing in their third Orange Bowl in four years as the champion of the ACC and riding an 11-game winning streak into their bowl date with the Cardinal.

Sugar Bowl

New Orleans, Louisiana. January 4th, 2011

Arkansas Razorbacks
vs.

Ohio State Buckeyes

Comment: Two teams looking on the outside of the automatic bowl bid picture had their lots picked up by the Sugar Bowl, as the New Orleans-based bowl selected a replacement SEC team — Arkansas — and a very attractive at-large opponent — Ohio State — to feature in their tradition-filled bowl.

Both teams finished just short of making runs at their respective conference crowns, but were well rewarded with a bid to the Sugar Bowl to play in a marquee Big Ten-SEC matchup.

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Final BCS Rankings of 2010: Auburn and Oregon On Their Way to BCS Title Game

With BCS chaos at a minimum and two teams romping through their final weekend tests, the final BCS rankings were less a surprise and more of a formality.

Auburn and Oregon finished a strong 1-2 in the final BCS standings of the 2010 college football season, setting up their long-awaited and long-predicted meeting in the BCS National Championship Game on January 10.

The rest of the standings played out rather unsurprisingly, with TCU, Stanford and Wisconsin rounding out the top five.

All three teams are on their way to BCS bowl games as well.

TCU takes advantage of two BCS clauses to head to the Rose Bowl — the one which gives an automatic BCS bowl bid to the highest ranked non-AQ conference champion, and the one which gives that team a Rose Bowl berth if the “Granddaddy of Them All” loses either the Big Ten or Pac-10 champ to the BCS title game.

The Horned Frogs will take on Wisconsin in Pasadena, as the Badgers finish ahead of both Ohio State and Michigan State to claim the Big Ten’s automatic bid to the Rose Bowl.

Stanford also qualifies automatically as the highest ranked AQ conference member to not win its own conference and still finish in the top four. The Cardinal will be on their way to Miami to play in the Orange Bowl.

The Cardinal will be joined in Miami by ACC Champion Virginia Tech, who finish inside the BCS top-14 despite starting the season 0-2 with losses to Boise State and FCS James Madison.

No. 6 Ohio State fails to receive an automatic bid to a BCS game, but its quickly scooped up by the Sugar Bowl, who also took a ticket on No. 8 Arkansas to set up a very attractive early-January bowl game in New Orleans.

No. 7 Oklahoma, who needed a 17-point comeback on Saturday night to claim the Big 12 Championship Game against Nebraska will fill the Big 12’s automatic spot in the Fiesta Bowl. And yes, the Fiesta Bowl will be hosting the Big East champion Connecticut Huskies, who fail to even register in the BCS top-25.

So there you have it, the BCS bowls are set, as well as the final BCS standings. Not too many surprises here, but we’re no where close to the end of the college football season — the yearly extravaganza of 35 bowl games in 24 days is headed our way.

Until then, here’s this week’s final set of BCS rankings:

Final BCS Standings – December 5th

Rank Team BCS Score
1 Auburn Tigers .9866
2 Oregon Ducks .9720
3 TCU Horned Frogs .9102
4 Stanford Cardinal .8365
5 Wisconsin Badgers .8041
6 Ohio State Buckeyes .7660
7 Oklahoma Sooners .7297
8 Arkansas Razorbacks .7274
9 Michigan State Spartans .6922
10 Boise State Broncos .6137
11 LSU Tigers .6134
12 Missouri Tigers .5276
13 Virginia Tech Hokies .5032
14 Oklahoma State Cowboys .4897
15 Nevada Wolfpack .4336
16 Alabama Crimson Tide .4328

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Some thoughts:

  • BCS Know How’s Projected BCS vs. Actual BCS Rankings
    • Nailed 1-14, mixed up 15-16 and 17-18.

    The BCS rankings had an error in their final tabulation, as the Colley Matrix miscalculated its final rankings. LSU was ranked No. 10 in the final rankings, but should be No. 11. Boise State was No. 11 but should be No. 10. These changes are reflected in the rankings above.

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USA Today Coaches’ Poll Week 14: Oregon, Auburn Finish Season On Top

With the final weekend in the books, the coaches pushed some added support Auburn’s way, but the Tigers fell just short of getting to No. 1 in the season’s final Coaches’ Poll.

The Tigers finish the season with 24 first-place votes to Oregon’s 34, and the Ducks finish the season at the No. 1 spot they’ve held for more than a month.

TCU picks up one first-place vote to go along with its strong poll support overall to finish a strong No. 3 in the final coaches’ ballot.

The top 12 is unchanged from last week save Oklahoma gaining enough support with their Big 12 championship to move into a tie with Arkansas at No. 8.

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USA Today Coaches’ Poll – December 5th

Rank Team Votes Share of Vote
1 Oregon Ducks 1450 .983
2 Auburn Tigers 1437 .974
3 TCU Horned Frogs 1348 .914
4 Wisconsin Badgers 1276 .865
5 Stanford Cardinal 1239 .840
6 Ohio State Buckeyes 1200 .814
7 Michigan State Spartans 1104 .748
8 Arkansas Razorbacks 1008 .683
8 Oklahoma Sooners 1008 .683
10 Boise State Broncos 914 .620
11 Virginia Tech Hokies 900 .610
12 LSU Tigers 826 .560
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Final Projected BCS Rankings: Oregon and Auburn Meet For BCS National Title

The final BCS standings have been released, take a look HERE.

It’s on.

With victories on Saturday afternoon, Oregon and Auburn both clinched spots in the 2011 BCS National Championship Game, giving college football fans a dream matchup between two of the most prolific offenses in the country.

Entering the weekend needing to just take care of business, the Tigers and Ducks did more than that — dismantling South Carolina and Oregon State easily — and will play for a BCS title.

If either had fallen, extreme BCS chaos would have ensued, but for a second straight season, we avoid any real controversy on the final weekend and with few other top teams playing, the usual BCS confusion will likely be avoided tomorrow.

However, there still remains the important and somewhat complex task of filling the other BCS bowl bids with AQ conference champions and other at-large teams, and in pursuit of some clarity, here’s what we know so far:

  • TCU, as the highest ranked champion of a non-automatically qualifying conference, will be given an automatic BCS bowl bid.
    • Because the Rose Bowl will lose the Pac-10 champion (Oregon), TCU will fulfill a new Rose Bowl clause, and be headed to Pasadena.
  • Wisconsin, who will likely be the highest ranked Big Ten team in the BCS standings when they are released tomorrow, will be headed to the Rose Bowl as the Big Ten’s representative.
  • Stanford — the highest ranked BCS AQ conference member to not win its own conference and still rank in the top four — will automatically qualify for a BCS bowl. We just don’t know which one.
  • UConn, the surprise Big East champs, are also BCS bowl bound, but with no direct ties to any BCS bowl, could be headed to the Sugar, Fiesta or Orange Bowl.
  • Virginia Tech will be on their way to the Orange Bowl as champions of the ACC.
  • Oklahoma will be headed to Glendale to take part in the Fiesta Bowl as the Big 12 champs.

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That leaves two openings. Michigan State, Ohio State, Boise State, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Arkansas and LSU will all likely be eligible come tomorrow.

It looks like the Sugar Bowl will want to replace Auburn with another SEC team and Arkansas looks to be that team. The Sugar Bowl will have another at-large opening, and could pick any of the available teams, but will likely bypass Stanford and UConn in favor of a team from the at-large pool — in all likelihood Ohio State. Check out our BCS Bowl projections here.

That’s the bowl picture — it’s messy at best — but the BCS standings shouldn’t be so difficult to digest when they’re released tomorrow.

The BCS standings should look relatively unchanged to the naked eye, and that distance between Auburn and Oregon (.0002 last week) should continue to be paper-thin and could go either way although, of course, who finishes first and who finishes second doesn’t matter in the slightest.

Here’s a shot at what the top-18 will look like when they are released tomorrow at 8:15 p.m. ET on ESPN:

Projected BCS Standings – BCS Week Eight (December 5th)

Rank Team
1 Auburn Tigers
2 Oregon Ducks
3 TCU Horned Frogs
4 Stanford Cardinal
5 Wisconsin Badgers
6 Ohio State Buckeeys
7 Oklahoma Sooners
8 Arkansas Razorbacks
9 Michigan State Spartans
10 LSU Tigers
11 Boise State Broncos
12 Missouri Tigers
13 Virginia Tech Hokies
14 Oklahoma State Cowboys
15 Alabama Crimson Tide
16 Nevada Wolfpack
17 Nebraska Cornhuskers
18 Texas A&M Aggies
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Auburn Claims Spot in BCS Title Game with SEC Championship Game Victory

An impressive victory in the SEC Championship Game over South Carolina gives the Auburn Tigers their second SEC crown in seven years and will send the Tigers on their way to the BCS National Championship Game.

Auburn came into the day ranked No. 1 in the BCS rankings and simply needing a victory to make their way to Glendale for the BCS title game.

They did exactly that, and impressive fashion, smothering any hope that the likes of TCU, Wisconsin or Stanford had of making their way to the championship game, and dashing the upset hopes of South Carolina.

Cam Newton was spectacular, passing for 335 yards and rushing for 73 more, along with his six total touchdowns.

The Tigers will now await the BCS bowl selections tomorrow, but the can be sure today that they’ve done enough to make their way to the BCS title game in Glendale, Arizona on January 10 where they will likely face the Oregon Ducks.

Auburn will be the fifth straight SEC champion to make their way to the BCS title game and second straight that will be 13-0 entering the game.