Final 2013 BCS Rankings: Florida State And Auburn Finish Year On Top

The BCS was never much more than a result of the staples that have long ruled college football — tradition, formality and prestige. Pair teams that should play each other together in a bowl, sure, but make sure they’re also the biggest names.

Official BCS Rankings
Rank	Team
1	Florida State Seminoles
2	Auburn Tigers
3	Alabama Crimson Tide
4	Michigan State Spartans
5	Stanford Cardinal
Scroll down for more

As the BCS sings its swan song, habits that seem old — like the SEC always being in the driver’s seat for the national title — are actually recent developments of the BCS era. But in 2013 it looked like there might be a chance to end the streak just before the BCS met its own end.

Then Michigan State stepped in the way. The Spartans topped Ohio State and the SEC’s Auburn will face Florida State in the national title game.

Not only that, but the SEC lands the No. 3 team in the country, Alabama, in another BCS bowl automatically, and ends the year occupying nearly half of the BCS’s top 10.

And so the BCS ends just like it was supposed to — granting 10 berths to 10 teams from the “power” conferences, though the AAC might have lost its claim to power long before it lost its “Big East” name.

The Big 10 and Pac-12 champions will meet in the Rose Bowl. The Fiesta Bowl will feature the Big 12’s champion. And the Sugar Bowl will get the replacement team of its dreams in Alabama. The BCS worked just like it should have, whether you liked it or not. We were just trying to make sense of it as it was handed down.

Some times we could, some times we couldn’t.

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The last-ever BCS rankings:

Final BCS Standings — December 8th

Rank	Team	BCS Score
1	Florida State Seminoles	.9957
2	Auburn Tigers	.9638
3	Alabama Crimson Tide	.9061
4	Michigan State Spartans	.8600
5	Stanford Cardinal	.8191
6	Baylor Bears	.7722
7	Ohio State Buckeyes	.7705
8	Missouri Tigers	.7256
9	South Carolina Gamecocks	.7152
10	Oregon Ducks	.5811
11	Oklahoma Sooners	.5756
12	Clemson Tigers	.5553
13	Oklahoma State Cowboys	.5233
14	Arizona State Sun Devils	.4416
15	UCF Knights	.4343
16	LSU Tigers	.4322

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Some thoughts:

• BCS Know How’s Projected BCS vs. Actual BCS Rankings
  • Not a great final showing, so be it! This is too much fun to be sad about.
• Again, we’re looking at a much different BCS Know How moving forward. We’ll figure it out after bowl season, which should actually be a ton of fun. Check out the non-BCS bowl schedule, too, if you’re looking for some interesting action.

Final BCS Computer Rankings: Florida State Ends It At No. 1

Florida State finishes the year atop the computer rankings and the BCS poll, claiming four of six top spots in the BCS computers. Auburn grabs No. 2, while Alabama ends the year as the No. 3 BCS computer team.

Here are the rankings of the six BCS computers:

Six BCS Computer Standings – BCS Final (December 8)

Rank	Anderson	Billingsley	Colley	Massey	Sagarin	Wolfe
1	Florida St.	Florida St.	Auburn	Auburn	Florida St.	Florida St.
2	Auburn	Auburn	Florida St.	Florida St.	Auburn	Auburn
3	Stanford	Alabama	Stanford	Alabama	Stanford	Alabama
4	Alabama	Michigan St.	Ohio St.	Stanford	Michigan St.	Michigan St.
5	Michigan St.	Ohio St.	Missouri	Michigan St.	Alabama	Stanford
6	Baylor	Stanford	Alabama	Missouri	Missouri	Missouri

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And the aggregate BCS computer rankings:

BCS Computer Rankings Aggregate – BCS Final (December 8)

Rank	Team	Share of Vote
1	Florida State Seminoles	.990
2	Auburn Tigers	.970
3	Alabama Crimson Tide	.890
3	Stanford Cardinal	.890
5	Michigan State Spartans	.860
6	Missouri Tigers	.770
7	Ohio State Buckeyes	.750
8	South Carolina Gamecocks	.720
9	Baylor Bears	.710
10	Oregon Ducks	.600
11	Arizona State Sun Devils	.590
12	Oklahoma Sooners	.560

Projected BCS Standings: Last BCS Rankings To Set Up Florida State & Auburn

It seemed like it was going to play out just like we hoped — drama, controversy and loud yelling until the day the BCS died. And then Michigan State had to ruin all that.

Projected BCS Rankings
Rank	Team
1	Florida State Seminoles
2	Auburn Tigers
3	Alabama Crimson Tide
4	Stanford Cardinal
5	Michigan State Spartans
Scroll down for more

When Auburn took the SEC title during its Saturday matinee television spot, the debate started to ratchet up. If Ohio State won the Big Ten title, would they be headed to the BCS title game or could Auburn jump the Buckeyes?

Turns out it didn’t matter. Michigan State surprised the nation, ending Ohio State’s 24-game winning streak and giving Auburn the chance to grab No. 2 in the very last BCS standings. With that, the title game is set. As are a few other of the yearly BCS scenarios we’ve come to love and count on each season.

Here’s what else we know so far:

• Stanford and Michigan State will be headed to the Rose Bowl after winning their respective conference titles
• Baylor will be going to the Fiesta Bowl after winning the Big 12 on a crazy day of conference action
• UCF will automatically claim a BCS bowl bid after winning the regular season AAC title, likely headed to the Fiesta Bowl
• Alabama will likely be automatically qualified for a BCS bowl by finishing third in the final BCS standings, thus eliminating all other possible SEC berths beyond Auburn. For more on this, visit the BCS Bowls page
• Teams likely eligible tomorrow for the at-large pool: Clemson, Oregon, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Missouri, Oklahoma State, South Carolina and possibly LSU
• For more, check out our final slate of projected BCS bowls

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Meanwhile, the BCS standings, after electing Florida State No. 1 and Auburn No. 2, will probably play out as expected. Alabama is likely to end the year at No. 3, followed by conference champions Stanford and Michigan State. Then expect Ohio State to land around No. 6 after its first loss in more than two years, followed by Baylor and Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina, and Oregon and Oklahoma State.

As for what to expect for tomorrow: We’ll get the Coaches’ Poll normal time, around noon ET. Then things will be quiet. We expect to have Jeff Sagarin’s BCS computer rankings early, but who knows for sure.

The Harris Poll will be withheld from public viewing until after the BCS pairings are announced to keep some “drama” but since most of the drama is gone, take that as you will.

Then, around 8:30, the numbers will start pouring in and the pairings will be announced and we’ll be on our way to the final BCS season.

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Remember, we’ll be here to take you through all of it, starting with tomorrow’s releases of the human polls, computer rankings and BCS. Follow along all day @BCSKnowHow and here to stay up to the second with projections, mathematical breakdowns of the computers, human polls and everything in between.

Here’s what the BCS standings will likely look like when they are released tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN:

Final Projected BCS Standings (December 8th)

Rank	Team
1	Florida State Seminoles
2	Auburn Tigers
3	Alabama Crimson Tide
4	Stanford Cardinal
5	Michigan State Spartans
6	Ohio State Buckeyes
7	Baylor Bears
8	Oklahoma Sooners
9	Missouri Tigers
10	South Carolina Gamecocks
11	Oregon Ducks
12	Oklahoma State Cowboys
13	Clemson Tigers
14	LSU Tigers
15	UCF Knights
16	Arizona State Sun Devils

On a programming note: Obviously things around here are going to change very soon. This has been a ton of fun to do. More on what’s next after the craziness of tomorrow. Thank you all!

BCS Computer Rankings Week Eight: Notre Dame, Florida End Season At Top of Computer Ranks

More to come.

Here are the rankings of the six BCS computers:

Six BCS Computer Standings – BCS Week Eight (December 2)

Rank	Anderson	Billingsley	Colley	Massey	Sagarin	Wolfe
1	Notre Dame	Notre Dame	Notre Dame	Notre Dame	Notre Dame	Notre Dame
2	Florida	Alabama	Florida	Florida	Florida	Florida
3	Kansas St.	Kansas St.	Stanford	Alabama	Alabama	Alabama
4	Alabama	Oregon	Alabama	LSU	Kansas St.	Stanford
5	Stanford	Stanford	Kansas St.	Stanford	Oregon	LSU
6	Oregon	Florida	Oregon	Oregon	Stanford	Oregon

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And the aggregate BCS computer rankings:

BCS Computer Rankings Aggregate – BCS Week Eight (December 2)

Rank	Team	Share of Vote
1	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	1.000
2	Florida Gators	.960
3	Alabama Crimson Tide	.910
4	Stanford Cardinal	.850
4	Kansas State Wildcats	.850
6	Oregon Ducks	.810
7	LSU Tigers	.760
8	Oklahoma Sooners	.730
9	South Carolina Gamecocks	.700
10	Texas A&M Aggies	.630
11	Georgia Bulldogs	.620
12	Oregon State Beavers	.520

Final BCS Rankings of 2012: Notre Dame and Alabama Finish On Top But Northern Illinois Steals The Show

The drama had seemingly been sucked out of the final weekend of the college football season until we figured out that a borderline non-AQ BCS buster was still possible. Still many were wary.

Official BCS Rankings
Rank	Team
1	Notre Dame Fighting Irish
2	Alabama Crimson Tide
3	Florida Gators
4	Oregon Ducks
5	Kansas State Wildcats
Scroll down for more

But then things started falling Northern Illinois’s way. After the Huskies grabbed the MAC championship from Kent State’s clutches in overtime, they sat at home and watched UCLA and Texas lose. Then they saw the thing that proved most key — Nebraska get crushed by Wisconsin.

Those things, combined with the requisite boost the Huskies got for beating previously No. 17 Kent State put the Huskies at No. 15 this week. And as we learned these last few days, that was the threshold. Finishing ahead of the Big East’s BCS representative, No. 21 Louisville, Northern Illinois is Orange Bowl bound, where the Huskies will take on Florida State.

Elsewhere the tension was somewhat minimal. As expected, undefeated Notre Dame is on its way to the BCS title game, where the Fighting Irish will find SEC champion Alabama waiting.

Conference champions Wisconsin, Stanford and Kansas State found themselves in their anchor bowls, joined by at-large Florida — the beneficiary an automatic rule including the top-ranked AQ non-champion — and at-large Oregon.

All part of the BCS’s now teenage plan to combine bowl affiliations and numbers to rank and distribute games during bowl season’s final week. Worked out pretty interestingly this year. We’ve got one more of these ahead of us. It’s been fun, now let’s enjoy bowl season.

Here are the final BCS rankings of 2012:

Final BCS Standings — December 2nd

Rank	Team	BCS Score
1	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	.9978
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	.9441
3	Florida Gators	.8984
4	Oregon Ducks	.8621
5	Kansas State Wildcats	.8226
6	Stanford Cardinal	.7683
7	Georgia Bulldogs	.7583
8	LSU Tigers	.7511
9	Texas A&M Aggies	.6756
10	South Carolina Gamecocks	.6604
11	Oklahoma Sooners	.6502
12	Florida State Seminoles	.5047
13	Oregon State Beavers	.4716
14	Clemson Tigers	.4693
15	Northern Illinois Huskies	.3276
16	Nebraska Cornhuskers	.3264

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Some thoughts:

• BCS Know How’s Projected BCS vs. Actual BCS Rankings
  • The glaring oversight is of course at No. 16, where NIU lands a key one spot above where they needed to be.
  • Many shared that omission, but shout out to Yesh Ginsberg, who stood out and correctly predicted that NIU would have a simple time qualifying for the BCS, which they did.

Projected BCS Standings: Quiet Across The Land As Notre Dame and Alabama Lead The Final BCS Rankings of 2012

The opportunity for chaos always stirs college football fans. And it looked like we were in store for some this year.

Projected Final BCS Rankings
Rank	Team
1	Notre Dame Fighting Irish
2	Alabama Crimson Tide
3	Florida Gators
4	Georgia Bulldogs
5	Oregon Ducks
Scroll down for more

Six top-flight SEC teams emerged early. Oregon, Kansas State, Notre Dame, Louisville and Florida State looked every bit the flag bearer for their conferences. Chaos was certainly coming.

Then it arrived in November in the form of unbeaten Alabama, Oregon and Kansas State suffering surprising first losses. But then all was quiet.

And when all was said and done in the 2012 college football season, it was pretty clear. Notre Dame, on the strength on an undefeated season, and Alabama, winners of the battle-testing SEC, will finish 1-2 in the final BCS standings and meet for the BCS title at the end of the expansive bowl season.

Championship weekend served as a clarifying moment for many of the thing college football fans thought we knew, but couldn’t guarantee. Alabama, Florida State, Stanford, Louisville, Wisconsin and Kansas State secured BCS bids in traditional fashion.

Florida, tomorrow’s No. 3 team will claim a bid as the top-ranked member of a AQ conference to not actually win that conference. Oregon, set to land at No. 5 with one overtime loss to Rose Bowl-bound Stanford, will almost certainly be snatched up by a BCS bowl right away. That’s nine.

Then that 10th and final bid.

Coming into the weekend it was all about the non-AQ and the chance at a BCS buster. But the hope will stop here. Not enough happened for the MAC champion Northern Illinois or MWC champion Boise State to make a BCS bowl bid. And so, for a second straight year, we will forgo the non-AQ storyline taker and have a set of BCS bowls with 10 AQ conference members.

The best shot the non-AQs had at a BCS bowl was Northern Illinois. And the Huskies will just miss out at No. 17. That’s the long and short of it.

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We’ll be here to take you through the entire process tomorrow — human polls, computer rankings, bowl pairings and BCS rankings  Follow along @BCSKnowHow and right here to stay up to the second with projections, mathematical breakdowns of the computers, human polls and everything in between. We’ll put up a chat room for questions and general discussion, too.

Got all that? Hope so.

Here’s what the final BCS standings will likely look like when they are released tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN:

Projected BCS Standings – BCS Week Eight (December 2nd)

Rank	Team
1	Notre Dame Fighting Irish
2	Alabama Crimson Tide
3	Florida Gators
4	Georgia Bulldogs
5	Oregon Ducks
6	Kansas State Wildcats
7	Stanford Cardinal
8	LSU Tigers
9	Texas A&M Aggies
10	Oklahoma Sooners
11	South Carolina Gamecocks
12	Florida State Seminoles

Final BCS Rankings of 2011: LSU and Alabama Finish an SEC-Dominated Season On Top

The rematch is on.

With the release of the final BCS standings, the Bowl Championship Series has spoken, and we’re headed for the first-ever rematch of a regular season game in the BCS title game.

LSU and Alabama did enough in the eyes of the voters and the computers to do just that, and come Jan. 9, the entire country will be tuned in to see whether LSU’s defense can once again stifle Alabama or if the Crimson Tide can turn the tide on the Tigers.

Oklahoma State lands on the outside looking in, instead headed off to the Fiesta Bowl to take on a very game Stanford team, who finishes in the No. 3 slot.

No. 5 Oregon, boosted on the power of huge leaps in human poll support, is on its way to the Rose Bowl to take on No. 10 Wisconsin, whose Big Ten title game victory over Michigan State brought the Badgers back into the top 10 and ensured one of the best looking matchups among the BCS bowls, at least on paper.

The four teams that follow Oregon were all left out of the BCS picture, as Arkansas, Boise State, Kansas State and South Carolina will have to settle for non-BCS bowls after commendable seasons in three tough conferences.

A surprise berth for No. 11 Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl certainly ruffled some feathers, but the Hokies had an impressive season, and will face off against No. 13 Michigan in New Orleans on Jan. 2.

All in all, the BCS standings once again brought about debate, consternation and excitement until the end. Whether you agree with the decisions the system made, it’s what we’ve got, and we’re not headed for a slate of 35 bowl games — some duds and some spectacular matchups — that will certainly provide for entertainment value throughout December and January. Enjoy.

Here’s the final BCS rankings of 2011:

BCS Standings Week Eight — December 4

Rank	Team	BCS Score
1	LSU Tigers	1.000
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	.9419
3	Oklahoma State Cowboys	.9333
4	Stanford Cardinal	.8476
5	Oregon Ducks	.7901
6	Arkansas Razorbacks	.7687
7	Boise State Broncos	.7408
8	Kansas State Wildcats	.6827
9	South Carolina Gamecocks	.6553
10	Wisconsin Badgers	.6374
11	Virginia Tech Hokies	.5190
12	Baylor Bears	.4977
13	Michigan Wolverines	.4794
14	Oklahoma Sooners	.4603
15	Clemson Tigers	.4218
16	Georgia Bulldogs	.4119

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Some thoughts:

• BCS Know How’s Projected BCSvs. Actual BCS Rankings
  • Well, I think you know.

Final BCS Computer Rankings: Auburn and Oregon Unanimous 1-2

After the final week of play, Auburn and Oregon finish No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in all six BCS computers, with some disagreement below that.

Both will be headed to the BCS National Championship Game after completing perfect seasons.

TCU and Oklahoma finish with strong computer support as well, finishing No. 3 and No. 4 in the eyes of the computers.

So, here’s what the top of each computer ranking looked like:

Six BCS Computer Standings – BCS Week Eight (December 5th)

Rank	Anderson	Billingsley	Colley	Massey	Sagarin	Wolfe
1	Auburn	Auburn	Auburn	Auburn	Auburn	Auburn
2	Oregon	Oregon	Oregon	Oregon	Oregon	Oregon
3	TCU	TCU	Oklahoma	Arkansas	Arkansas	TCU
4	Oklahoma	Wisconsin	TCU	TCU	Stanford	Arkansas
5	Wisconsin	Boise State	Stanford	Stanford	Oklahoma	Stanford
6	Ohio State	Ohio State	Missouri	Oklahoma	LSU	Oklahoma

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And what the aggregate BCS computer rankings were:

BCS Computer Rankings Aggregate – BCS Week Eight (December 5th)

Rank	Team	Share of Vote
1	Auburn Tigers	1.000
2	Oregon Ducks	.960
3	TCU Horned Frogs	.900
4	Oklahoma Sooners	.830
5	Stanford Cardinal	.820
6	Arkansas Razorbacks	.800
7	LSU Tigers	.720
8	Wisconsin Badgers	.690
9	Ohio State Buckeyes	.680
10	Missouri Tigers	.620

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.