Final BCS Standings and Bowl Selections

The last regular BCS Standings are now available and it looks like an ACC team will play an SEC team in the final BCS National Championship game.  #1 Florida State will play #2 Auburn in Pasadena, California, on January 6th.  Auburn, the SEC Champion, earned the opportunity to play in the BCS National Championship after their win over Missouri (now ranked #8) and after Michigan State upset Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship.  #4 Michigan State will play in the Rose Bowl game against #5 Stanford, the PAC-12 champion.  Though Ohio State lost their bid to play in the National Championship, their status as a top-ten team still provided the Buckeyes with an at-large BCS bid.  As a result, #7 Ohio State accepted an invitation to play in the Orange Bowl against #12 Clemson.

Incidentally, the Orange Bowl is not the only BCS-level bowl that will feature a match between at-large teams.  This year's Sugar Bowl will be a contest between #3 Alabama and #11 Oklahoma.  Normally, the Sugar Bowl is contractually obligated to take the SEC Champion, but since Auburn will play in the National Championship, Alabama, as the second-highest ranked SEC team in the BCS, will play instead.  They will face Oklahoma, the second-highest ranking team from the Big XII in the BCS standings.  But why Oklahoma?  Why not take a higher-ranked Oregon instead?  Well, according to ESPN, the Sugar Bowl's decision to take the Sooners was, in part, a marketing decision.  Norman, Oklahoma, is closer to New Orleans than Eugene, Oregon, and, starting with the 2014 season, the Sugar Bowl will host the champions of the Big XII and the SEC, unless one or both teams qualify for the postseason playoffs.  This season's Sugar Bowl will start the new post-season championship rivalry/partnership between the two conferences a year earlier.   

As for the rest of the top ten, #6 Baylor, as the Big XII champion, received the conference's berth to the Fiesta Bowl.  Their opponent this year will be #15 Central Florida, the champion of the American Athletic Conference (former Big East football).  #8 Missouri, #9 South Carolina, and #10 Oregon comprise the rest of the BCS top ten, and they will play in non-BCS bowls.  As the 3rd highest-ranked team in the BCS from the SEC, Missouri will play in the Cotton Bowl against #13 Oklahoma State.  South Carolina accepted a bid to play in the Capital One Bowl (formerly the Tangerine Bowl & the Florida Citrus Bowl) in Orlando.  They will face #19 Wisconsin, the third-highest ranking Big Ten team in the BCS.  Finally, #10 Oregon will play an unranked Texas Longhorns team in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.   Enjoy the week, everybody! 


FULL BCS STANDINGS - WEEK #16

A team's BCS ranking is determined by averaging the percentage totals from three components:  The USA Today Coaches Poll, the Harris Poll, and the six computer rankings.

BCS		Harris Poll			USA Today			Computer Rankings
RK	TEAM	AVG	PVS	RK	PTS	%	RK	PTS	%	AVG	A&H	RB	CM	KM	JS	PW	%
1	Florida State	.9957	1	1	2617	.9970	1	1550	1.0000	1	1	1	2	2	1	1	.990
2	Auburn	.9638	3	2	2527	.9627	2	1486	.9587	2	2	2	1	1	2	2	.970
3	Alabama	.9061	4	3	2405	.9162	3	1414	.9123	3	4	3	6	3	5	3	.890
4	Michigan State	.8600	10	4	2242	.8541	4	1342	.8658	5	5	4	7	5	4	4	.860
5	Stanford	.8191	7	5	2102	.8008	7	1188	.7665	3	3	6	3	4	3	5	.890
6	Baylor	.7722	9	6	2058	.7840	5	1275	.8226	9	6	7	10	12	8	8	.710
7	Ohio State	.7705	2	7	2048	.7802	6	1211	.7813	7	7	5	4	8	10	9	.750
8	Missouri	.7256	5	9	1850	.7048	9	1088	.7019	6	8	9	5	6	7	6	.770
9	South Carolina	.7152	8	8	1866	.7109	8	1108	.7148	8	10	8	8	9	6	7	.720
10	Oregon	.5811	12	12	1499	.5710	12	887	.5723	10	11	11	11	10	13	11	.600
11	Oklahoma	.5756	17	10	1517	.5779	10	913	.5890	12	12	12	12	15	9	12	.560
12	Clemson	.5553	13	11	1512	.5760	11	899	.5800	13	16	10	14	14	15	10	.510
13	Oklahoma State	.5233	6	13	1430	.5448	13	845	.5452	14	13	13	13	22	11	17	.480
14	Arizona State	.4416	11	17	909	.3463	17	602	.3884	11	9	16	9	7	14	13	.590
15	UCF	.4343	16	15	1098	.4183	15	658	.4245	15	15	14	15	19	12	14	.460
16	LSU	.4322	15	14	1267	.4827	14	719	.4639	17	18	18	18	13	17	16	.350
17	UCLA	.3703	18	18	907	.3455	18	520	.3355	16	14	19	16	11	16	15	.430
18	Louisville	.3199	19	16	1091	.4156	16	611	.3942	23	23	15	20	NR	23	23	.150
19	Wisconsin	.2365	21	19	673	.2564	19	408	.2632	20	20	20	24	23	19	22	.190
20	Fresno State	.1675	23	20	579	.2206	20	344	.2219	26	NR	22	21	NR	24	NR	.060
21	Texas A&M	.1663	24	21	471	.1794	21	247	.1594	21	24	25	NR	17	20	19	.160
22	Georgia	.1594	22	23	318	.1211	24	135	.0871	18	19	NR	19	16	21	18	.270
23	Northern Illinois	.1572	14	22	408	.1554	23	149	.0961	19	NR	17	17	NR	18	21	.220
24	Duke	.1134	20	24	291	.1109	21	247	.1594	25	NR	21	23	NR	22	NR	.070
25	USC	.0672	NR	NR	53	.0202	NR	33	.0213	21	17	24	22	18	NR	24	.160

POSTSEASON BOWL SELECTIONS FROM JERRY PALM'S WEBSITE

Teams in bold have accepted bowl bids. 

BCS Games
Bowl	Date	Location	Matchup	Prediction
BCS Title Game	Jan. 6	Pasadena, Calif..	BCS vs BCS	Florida State vs. Auburn
Orange	Jan. 3	Miami, Fla.	ACC/BCS vs BCS	Clemson vs. Ohio State
Sugar	Jan. 2	New Orleans, La.	SEC/BCS vs BCS	Alabama vs. Oklahoma
Fiesta	Jan. 1	Glendale, Ariz.	Big 12/BCS vs BCS	Baylor vs. UCF
Rose	Jan. 1	Pasadena, Calif.	Big Ten/BCS vs Pac-12/BCS	Michigan State vs. Stanford
Non-BCS Games
Bowl	Date	Location	Matchup	Prediction
GoDaddy.com	Jan. 5	Mobile, Ala.	MAC vs. Sun Belt No. 2	Ball State vs. Ark. State
BBVA Compass	Jan. 4	Birmingham, Ala.	SEC No. 8/9 vs. American No. 5/C-USA	Vanderbilt vs. Houston
Cotton	Jan. 3	Arlington, Tex.	Big 12 No. 2 vs. SEC	Okla. State vs. Missouri
Outback	Jan. 1	Tampa, Fla.	Big Ten No. 3 vs. SEC	Iowa vs. LSU
Capital One	Jan. 1	Orlando, Fla.	Big Ten No. 2 vs. SEC No. 2	Wisconsin vs. South Carolina
Heart of Dallas	Jan. 1	Dallas, Tex.	Big Ten No. 7 vs. C-USA	UNLV* vs. North Texas
Gator	Jan. 1	Jacksonville, Fla.	Big Ten No. 4/5 vs. SEC No. 6	Nebraska vs. Georgia
Chick-fil-A	Dec. 31	Atlanta, Ga.	ACC No. 2 vs. SEC No. 5	Duke vs. Texas A&M
Liberty	Dec. 31	Memphis, Tenn.	C-USA No. 1 vs. American/SEC No. 8/9	Rice vs. Miss. State
Sun	Dec. 31	El Paso, Tex.	ACC No. 4 vs. Pac-12 No. 4	Virginia Tech vs. UCLA
Advocare V100	Dec. 31	Shreveport, La.	SEC No. 10 vs. ACC No. 7	Arizona* vs. Boston College
Holiday	Dec. 30	San Diego, Calif.	Pac-12 No. 3 vs. Big 12 No. 5	Arizona State vs. Texas Tech
Alamo	Dec. 30	San Antonio, Tex.	Big 12 No. 3 vs. Pac-12 No. 2	Texas vs. Oregon
Music City	Dec. 30	Nashville, Tenn.	ACC No. 6 vs. SEC No. 7	Georgia Tech vs. Ole Miss
Armed Forces	Dec. 30	Fort Worth, Tex.	MWC vs. Navy	Middle Tenn.* vs. Navy
Buffalo Wild Wings	Dec. 28	Phoenix, Ariz.	Big 12 No. 4 vs. Big Ten No. 4/5	Kansas State vs. Michigan
Russell Athletic	Dec. 28	Orlando, Fla.	American No. 2 vs. ACC No. 3	Louisville vs. Miami (FL)
Belk	Dec. 28	Charlotte, N.C.	American No. 3 vs. ACC No. 5	Cincinnati vs. North Carolina
Pinstripe	Dec. 28	New York, N.Y.	Big 12 No. 7 vs. American No. 4	Notre Dame* vs. Rutgers
Fight Hunger	Dec. 27	San Francisco, Calif.	Pac-12 No. 6 vs. BYU	Washington vs. BYU
Texas	Dec. 27	Houston, Tex.	Big 12 No. 6 vs. Big Ten No. 6	Syracuse* vs. Minnesota
Military	Dec. 27	Annapolis, Md.	ACC No. 8 vs. C-USA	Maryland vs. Marshall
Poinsettia	Dec. 26	San Diego, Calif.	MWC No. 2 vs. Army	Utah State vs. N. Illinois*
Little Caesars	Dec. 26	Detroit, Mich.	MAC vs. Big Ten No. 8	Bowling Green vs. Pittsburgh*
Hawaii	Dec. 24	Honolulu, Hawaii	MWC vs. C-USA	Boise State vs. Oregon State*
Beef O'Brady's	Dec. 23	St. Petersburg, Fla.	American No. 6 vs. C-USA	Ohio* vs. East Carolina
New Orleans	Dec. 21	New Orleans, La.	Sun Belt No. 1 vs. C-USA	La.-Lafayette vs. Tulane
Famous Idaho Potato	Dec. 21	Boise, Idaho	MAC No. 3 vs. MWC	Buffalo vs. San Diego State
Las Vegas	Dec. 21	Las Vegas, Nev.	MWC No. 1 vs. Pac-12 No. 5	Fresno State vs. USC
New Mexico	Dec. 21	Albuquerque, N.M.	MWC No. 4/5 vs. Pac-12 No. 7	Colorado State vs. Wash. State

* - Replacement team. All games are on ESPN, except for the Sun (CBS), Cotton (FOX), Heart of Dallas (ESPNU) and Gator (ESPN2). If Army is bowl-eligible, it will play in the Poinsettia Bowl. If Navy is bowl-eligible, it will play in the Armed Forces Bowl. If BYU is bowl-eligible, it will play in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.