BCS Rankings Reaction: Oregon Falls to Fifth After First Loss
By Brian Spaen
The table has been set for who controls their destiny to the BCS National Championship. However, with some help, Oregon could still make it after suffering their first loss of the season Saturday.
Chip Kelly is interested to see how his team responds after their first loss of the season. Scott Olmos-US PRESSWIRE
Notre Dame, Alabama, and Georgia all control their destiny to reach college football’s title game on January 7th in Florida. The Irish nearly swept all the first-place votes in the human polls and receiving a number one ranking with the computers to receive a .997 average. As long as they defeat USC this coming Saturday, they will be in.
Alabama and Georgia come in at second and third, respectively. The Bulldogs are already in the SEC Championship but still has a rivalry game against Georgia Tech this Saturday. The Crimson Tide has their rivalry against a reeling Auburn team also this Saturday. Assuming they win, the SEC Championship turns into a playoff game to reach the national championship.
Realistically, there is no scenario where the SEC champion would be left out of the national championship at this point unless one of them drop a game this Saturday.
That makes Florida and Oregon huge USC fans on Saturday night. If the Trojans are able to upset Notre Dame, the Ducks and Gators have rivalry games on the road against Oregon State and Florida State, respectively. If both teams win that game, this is where controversy would arise.
Florida is in fourth place with just a 1.1 percent lead over Oregon. Considering the computers already think the Gators are the second-best team in the nation and Ducks seventh, it’s obvious to assume that Oregon will not win that side of the formula. It will all rely on the other part of the formula and the human voters.
That being said, it raises the debate on whether it’s better that Oregon doesn’t reach the conference championship game. The computers may actually see Oregon better if Stanford wins out and takes the Pac-12 championship since that would be the Ducks’ only loss of the season.
Back to the human voters, most of them probably do not want another all-SEC title game. As long as Oregon has a solid performance in Corvallis that could get them to second place in both human polls after an Irish loss and either Georgia or Alabama lose in the SEC title game.
This is what makes college football so interesting down the stretch. So many games could matter in the final two weeks or it may just come down to four games. For Oregon’s sake, they hope it’s more.
Brian Spaen is the lead editor for Autzen Zoo. See his banter with other FanSided writers and love for his favorite west coast professional teams by following him on Twitter.