Week #15 BCS Rankings, Jerry Palm's Bowl Predictions, and USC Hires Steve Sarkisian

I apologize for the delay in today's post.  But here are the full BCS Standings and Jerry Palm's Bowl projections for this week.  One reason for the delay was because of an important development in the search for a new head coach for the USC Trojans Football team.  ESPN has recently confirmed that USC has hired Washington Huskies head football coach Steve Sarkisian to lead their program.  In his five seasons at Washington, Sarkisian turned around a program that had gone 0-12 in the 2008 season by accumulating a 34-29 record (24-21 PAC-12).  Shortly after USC athletic director Pat Haden made his decision to hire Sarkisian, the Trojans' interim head football coach Ed Orgeron announced his resignation.  According to ESPN, Orgeron was "outraged" that he had been passed over for the job, even though Haden offered Orgeron an opportunity to continue serving the USC program as an assistant head coach and "one of the nation's highest paid assistants."  It will be interesting to see how the nascent Sarkisian era will play out in Southern California.  ESPN has the full story here.


FULL BCS STANDINGS - WEEK #15

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	.9948	2	1	2617	.9970	1	1546	.9974	1	1	1	4	2	1	1	.990
2	Ohio State	.9503	3	2	2488	.9478	2	1462	.9432	2	2	2	2	1	3	2	.960
3	Auburn	.9233	4	3	2422	.9227	3	1437	.9271	3	3	3	1	3	6	3	.920
4	Alabama	.8539	1	4	2262	.8617	4	1333	.8600	4	5	4	8	4	7	4	.840
5	Missouri	.8428	5	5	2231	.8499	5	1315	.8484	5	4	5	3	7	8	5	.830
6	Oklahoma State	.7629	7	6	2083	.7935	6	1248	.8052	9	8	7	9	15	5	11	.690
7	Stanford	.7069	8	7	1873	.7135	10	1034	.6671	7	7	6	6	8	10	9	.740
8	South Carolina	.7037	10	8	1841	.7013	7	1100	.7097	8	10	10	7	10	4	7	.700
9	Baylor	.6623	9	9	1778	.6773	7	1100	.7097	12	9	8	11	13	12	12	.600
10	Michigan State	.6529	11	10	1758	.6697	9	1037	.6690	11	12	13	10	9	11	8	.620
11	Arizona State	.5833	12	13	1277	.4865	13	765	.4935	6	6	11	5	6	9	6	.770
12	Oregon	.5321	13	12	1398	.5326	12	843	.5439	13	11	14	12	12	15	14	.520
13	Clemson	.5201	6	11	1444	.5501	11	853	.5503	14	16	12	15	14	16	13	.460
14	Northern Illinois	.4812	14	15	1104	.4206	18	547	.3529	10	18	9	13	5	2	10	.670
15	LSU	.4213	17	14	1258	.4792	14	720	.4645	17	20	18	19	16	18	17	.320
16	UCF	.3858	19	18	967	.3684	17	572	.3690	16	15	15	16	19	14	16	.420
17	Oklahoma	.3808	18	16	1041	.3966	15	660	.4258	17	14	16	17	25	20	19	.320
18	UCLA	.3506	22	19	779	.2968	19	473	.3052	15	13	19	14	11	17	15	.450
19	Louisville	.2630	20	17	1013	.3859	16	625	.4032	28	NR	17	NR	NR	NR	NR	.000
20	Duke	.2252	24	20	620	.2362	20	402	.2594	21	24	20	18	NR	19	23	.180
21	Wisconsin	.1988	15	21	485	.1848	21	266	.1716	20	21	22	21	18	13	20	.240
22	Georgia	.1143	NR	25	148	.0564	NR	41	.0265	19	19	NR	20	17	21	18	.260
23	Fresno State	.1006	16	22	428	.1630	22	215	.1387	28	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	.000
24	Texas A&M	.0995	21	23	290	.1105	25	121	.0781	23	NR	24	25	22	22	21	.110
25	Texas	.0666	NR	24	167	.0636	24	149	.0961	25	22	21	NR	NR	NR	NR	.040

JERRY PALM'S BOWL PREDICTIONS

Mr. Palm's analysis of his BCS selections can be found at his website via CBS Sports.

BCS Games
Bowl	Date	Location	Matchup	Prediction
BCS Title Game	Jan. 6	Pasadena, Calif..	BCS vs BCS	Florida State vs. Ohio State
Orange	Jan. 3	Miami, Fla.	ACC/BCS vs BCS	Clemson vs. Alabama
Sugar	Jan. 2	New Orleans, La.	SEC/BCS vs BCS	Auburn vs. UCF
Fiesta	Jan. 1	Glendale, Ariz.	Big 12/BCS vs BCS	Okla. State vs. N. Illinois
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	Bowling Green vs. Ark. State
BBVA Compass	Jan. 4	Birmingham, Ala.	SEC No. 9 vs. American No. 5/C-USA	Miss. State vs. Rutgers
Cotton	Jan. 3	Arlington, Tex.	Big 12 No. 2 vs. SEC	Baylor vs. LSU
Outback	Jan. 1	Tampa, Fla.	Big Ten No. 3 vs. SEC	Iowa vs. South Carolina
Capital One	Jan. 1	Orlando, Fla.	Big Ten No. 2 vs. SEC No. 2	Wisconsin vs. Missouri
Heart of Dallas	Jan. 1	Dallas, Tex.	Big Ten No. 7 vs. C-USA	Syracuse* vs. Rice
Gator	Jan. 1	Jacksonville, Fla.	Big Ten No. 4/5 vs. SEC No. 6	Michigan 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.	American/C-USA No. 1 vs. SEC No. 8	Marshall vs. Vanderbilt
Sun	Dec. 31	El Paso, Tex.	ACC No. 4 vs. Pac-12 No. 4	Virginia Tech vs. UCLA
Independence	Dec. 31	Shreveport, La.	SEC No. 10 vs. ACC No. 7	Oregon State* vs. Georgia Tech
Holiday	Dec. 30	San Diego, Calif.	Pac-12 No. 3 vs. Big 12 No. 5	Arizona State vs. Kansas State
Alamo	Dec. 30	San Antonio, Tex.	Big 12 No. 3 vs. Pac-12 No. 2	Oklahoma vs. Oregon
Music City	Dec. 30	Nashville, Tenn.	ACC No. 6 vs. SEC No. 7	Boston College vs. Ole Miss
Armed Forces	Dec. 30	Fort Worth, Tex.	MWC vs. Navy	Utah State vs. Navy
Buffalo Wild Wings	Dec. 28	Phoenix, Ariz.	Big 12 No. 4 vs. Big Ten No. 4/5	Texas vs. Nebraska
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	Houston vs. North Carolina
Pinstripe	Dec. 28	New York, N.Y.	Big 12 No. 7 vs. American No. 4	Notre Dame* vs. Cincinnati
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	Texas Tech vs. Minnesota
Military	Dec. 27	Washington, D.C.	ACC No. 8 vs. C-USA	Maryland vs. East Carolina
Poinsettia	Dec. 26	San Diego, Calif.	MWC No. 2 vs. Army	Boise State vs. Buffalo*
Little Caesars	Dec. 26	Detroit, Mich.	MAC vs. Big Ten No. 8	Ball State vs. Pittsburgh*
Hawaii	Dec. 24	Honolulu, Hawaii	MWC vs. C-USA	Colorado State vs. North Texas
Beef O'Brady's	Dec. 23	St. Petersburg, Fla.	American No. 6 vs. C-USA	Ohio* vs. Middle Tenn.
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	Toledo vs. UNLV
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	San Diego State vs. Arizona

* - 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.