Code Orange

Not that I’m complaining, but I’m shocked the AP voters moved South Florida up to #2 - with 11 #1 votes for that matter. It’s no shock, however, that Ohio State is #1. Boston College is #3 in the AP and #2 in the Coaches poll with South Florida landing at #3 in the coaches.

Oklahoma falls in at #4 in both and, I think a little surprisingly, LSU comes in at #5 in both polls, so they’re in great position to get back into the title hunt.

South Carolina, Oregon, Kentucky, West Virginia, and California round out the top 10 in the AP while Oregon, West Virginia, South Carolina, Cal, and USC (who are tied for 9th) round out the top 10 in the coaches poll.

#12 Arizona State in the AP also received a #1 vote.

Hawaii actually moved down a spot in the AP poll to #17 - with only Cincinnati dropping below them, but both Kentucky and Kansas jumping over them. Hawaii stayed the same in the Coaches poll.

Three new teams join the AP Poll: #22 Texas Tech, #24 Michigan, and #25 Kansas State; while four new teams jump into the coaches poll: Texas Tech, Tennessee, Virginia, and Penn State. By the way, Michigan is a mere 1 point out of the top 25 in the coaches poll.

I don’t know when I’ve seen 6 different teams get #1 votes in the AP poll outside of the preseason poll or the first few weeks of the season, as Ohio State, South Florida, Boston College, Oklahoma, LSU (yes, LSU got a #1 vote despite losing), and Arizona State all receive #1 votes.

Edit: Thank you ESPN for answering this: the last time six teams received #1 votes after the first month of the season was on Nov. 25, 1990. In that poll, Colorado, Georgia Tech, Miami, Brigham Young, Texas, and Florida all had #1 votes. Six teams had recieved #1 votes the week before as well, after #1 Notre Dame lost.

The coaches poll is a little more sane with only the top 3 teams getting #1 votes.

The Harris poll isn’t out yet that I see, but we can look at the coaches poll and how it will influence the BCS ratings. Remember, the ranking doesn’t matter - it’s the number of points you get that matter.

There are 1500 total possible points in the Coaches poll, and here are the percentage breakdown for the top 5 teams:

Ohio State - 0.9967 (+ 0.0747)
Boston College - 0.9220 (+ 0.0420)
South Florida - .8800 (+ 0.0213)
Oklahoma - 0.8587 (+ 0.0767)
LSU - 0.7820

So clearly, the closest gap is between South Florida and Oklahoma.

As for the computers - only Sagarin is out, but here is his top 10:

1. South Florida
2. LSU
3. South Carolina
4. Kentucky
5. Boston College
6. Kansas
7. Ohio State
8. West Virginia
9. Arizona State
10. Virginia Tech

How about others? Oklahoma is 12th. California is 14th. Oregon is 19th. Southern Cal is 35th.

As for the other polls, what did they look like last week?

Billingsly had Ohio State #2, South Florida #3, Boston College #5, West Virginia #6, and South Carolina #7, with LSU #1 and Cal #3. Oklahoma was way down at #18.

Last Week, Colley had LSU #1, Arizona State #2, South Florida #3, Ohio State #4, Missouri #5, Cal #6, South Carolina #7, Boston College #8, Illinois #9, and Cincinnati #10. Oklahoma was way down at #20.

Meanwhile, Massey had LSU #1, South Florida #2, Missouri #3, Boston College #4, Ohio State #5, South Carolina #6, Arizona State #7, Cal #8, Illinois #9, and Virginia Tech #10. Once again, Oklahoma was way down at 30th.

The Wolfe and Anderson/Hester rankings don’t release rankings until the BCS starts coming out.

Things look great for South Florida to slide into the #2 slot I think, depending on how things shake out in the Harris poll. Out of the computer polls that we can see numbers for, South Florida leads Boston College in all 4. I’ll take a stab and say they’re average lead over Boston College is going to be around 2 spots. Not only that, but South Florida looks to be #1 or #2 in all 4 of those poll - #1 in two of them. But Boston College isn’t too far behind.

Ohio State is hurting in some of these - at 7th in the poll already out and looking to be #1 in probably 1 of the other 3 - their lead in the human polls should be more than enough to have them at #1 in the BCS.

The huge loser here is Oklahoma, whose best ranking is #12 in the Sagarin poll already released, and was ranked in the 20s or lower in 2 of the other 3 polls last week. Oklahoma may not even be in the BCS top 5 with those numbers.

If I had to guess, here is how the BCS will turn out:

1. Ohio State
2. South Florida (but very, very, very close to Boston College)
3. Boston College
4. LSU
5. West Virginia