More to come, certainly.
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| Rank | Team | Votes | Share of Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 2866 | .997 |
| 2 | Alabama Crimson Tide | 2765 | .962 |
| 3 | Oregon Ducks | 2548 | .886 |
| 4 | Florida Gators | 2480 | .863 |
| 5 | Georgia Bulldogs | 2388 | .831 |
| 6 | Kansas State Wildcats | 2332 | .811 |
| 7 | Stanford Cardinal | 2142 | .745 |
| 8 | LSU Tigers | 2128 | .740 |
| 9 | Texas A&M Aggies | 1991 | .693 |
| 10 | South Carolina Gamecocks | 1838 | .639 |
| 11 | Oklahoma Sooners | 1745 | .607 |
| 12 | Florida State Seminoles | 1655 | .576 |
More to come.
Here are the rankings of the six BCS computers:
| 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 |
—
And the aggregate BCS computer rankings:
| 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 |
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:
| 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 |
—
Some thoughts:
The tension is building.
Northern Illinois lands at No. 16 in the final regular season Coaches’ Poll, while key members of the BCS pack, UCLA (No. 19), Nebraska (No. 21) and Boise State (No. 15) pile around them.
Will it be enough? Stay tuned.
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| Rank | Team | Votes | Share of Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 1470 | .997 |
| 2 | Alabama Crimson Tide | 1417 | .961 |
| 3 | Oregon Ducks | 1313 | .890 |
| 4 | Florida Gators | 1287 | .872 |
| 5 | Georgia Bulldogs | 1216 | .824 |
| 6 | Kansas State Wildcats | 1190 | .807 |
| 7 | LSU Tigers | 1111 | .753 |
| 8 | Stanford Cardinal | 1047 | .710 |
| 9 | Texas A&M Aggies | 1039 | .704 |
| 10 | South Carolina Gamecocks | 947 | .642 |
| 11 | Oklahoma Sooners | 890 | .603 |
| 12 | Florida State Seminoles | 853 | .578 |
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.
—
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:
| 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 |
Once again we’ve come to the end of the college football season with questions to be answered about the BCS.
| Final BCS Bowl Projections | |
|---|---|
| Bowl | Matchup |
| Title Game | Notre Dame vs. Alabama |
| Rose Bowl | Stanford vs. Wisconsin |
| Sugar Bowl | Florida vs. Oklahoma |
| Orange Bowl | Florida State vs. Louisville |
| Fiesta Bowl | Oregon vs. Kansas State |
| Scroll down for more | |
While Saturday was incredibly clarifying when it came to many of the BCS spots, as it always is, there is drama to be played out in the polls, the computer and the selection committees on Sunday.
The non-AQ debate rages. Will Northern Illinois or Boise State crack the set of BCS bowls?
Either way, it’s been as fun as it always is. Let’s get ready for bowl season.
—
BCS National Championship Game: Notre Dame Fighting Irish (BCS No. 1) vs. Alabama Crimson Tide (BCS No. 2)
Comment: It played out just right this year for Notre Dame and Alabama to meet in what could be the biggest name pairing in the history of the BCS title game. Two programs, each with big accomplishments in 2012 — Notre Dame’s undefeated season, Alabama’s SEC title — will meet for the BCS crown at the end of another expansive bowl season. The Crimson Tide just did enough against Georgia in the SEC title game to claim this spot and set up every BCS executive’s dream matchup.
Rose Bowl: Stanford Cardinal (Pac-12 champion) vs. Wisconsin Badgers (Big Ten champion)
Comment: Stanford did what it needed to do — beat UCLA twice in six days, including in the Pac-12 Championship Game — to make their way to the Rose Bowl as the Pac-12’s champion. Nebraska, on the other hand, did not do what it needed against Wisconsin, instead slipping to the Badgers when it mattered most, and giving Wisconsin a third straight bid to the Rose Bowl. Wisconsin’s Big Ten title comes in a year where they also recorded five losses, the most a BCS bowl bound team has ever had.
Sugar Bowl: Florida Gators (At-large selection) vs. Oklahoma Sooners (At-large selection)
Comment: Florida automatically qualifies for the BCS with its No. 3 final ranking, which they receive by just passing Georgia, who saw a chance at a national title shot slip away. Oklahoma, while unable to claim the Big 12’s BCS bid outright, instead makes their way to a BCS bowl on the strength of a season that came up just short of the top of the BCS. Losses to Kansas State and Notre Dame kept Oklahoma at bay, while a lone loss to Georgia kept Florida out of the SEC title game. But both find some sanctuary in the BCS anyways.
Orange Bowl: Florida State Seminoles (ACC champion) vs. Louisville Cardinals (Big East champion)
Comment: One played in a de facto conference championship game, the other in a real one. But when it mattered the most, Florida State and Louisville stepped up against Georgia Tech and Rutgers, respectively, and will meet in the Orange Bowl as representatives of their respective conferences. For Florida State, a team that was once a perennial BCS contender, the Orange Bowl is its first since 2006, while Louisville heads to the BCS for just the second time in school history.
Fiesta Bowl: Oregon Ducks (At-large selection) vs. Kansas State Wildcats (Big 12 champion)
Comment: Both must wonder what could have been. Two teams seemingly destined for the BCS title game fell one November night within minutes of each other. And with too little time to climb back into the title race, Oregon and Kansas State are relegated to the Fiesta Bowl for what should be an incredibly interesting matchup. Oregon was left at home watching Stanford and UCLA battle for a Rose Bowl bid, but will land softly at the Fiesta Bowl, while Kansas State’s Big 12 regular season title locked them into this bowl.
