Miami earned a .6273 BCS average and are ranked 10th in this week’s Harris Interactive poll, ninth in the USA Today Coaches’ poll and received a No. 13 ranking in the computer rankings. All three of those polls each comprise one-third of the BCS Standings.
Miami is also the highest ranked Atlantic Coast Conference team of the three teams representing the conference. Georgia Tech (6-1) is No. 12 this week and Virginia Tech (5-2) is No 14. It’s also the first time that the Hurricanes have been ranked in the BCS Standings’ top 10 since Dec. 3, 2005 – the final BCS rankings of the 2005 season.
Florida (6-0) is No. 1 in the rankings followed by Alabama (7-0), Texas (6-0), Boise State (6-0), Cincinnati (6-0), Iowa (7-0), USC (5-1), TCU (6-0), LSU (5-1) and Miami (5-1) all in the top 10.
To derive the three percentages that make up the BCS Standings, each team is assigned an inverse point total (25 for No. 1, 24 for No. 2, etc.) The two poll percentages are calculated by dividing each team’s point total by a maximum 2850 possible points (Harris) and 1475 possible points (USA Today). The computer rankings percentage is calculated by dropping the highest and lowest ranking for each team and then dividing the remaining total by 100 (the maximum possible points). The BCS Average is calculated by averaging the percentage totals of the Harris Interactive Poll, USA Today Poll, and computer rankings. The teams’ BCS Averages are ranked to produce the BCS Standings. The six computer ranking providers are Anderson & Hester, Richard Billingsley, Colley Matrix, Kenneth Massey, Jeff Sagarin and Peter Wolfe. Each computer ranking provider accounts for schedule strength within its formula.
The BCS is a five-game arrangement for post-season college football that is managed by the 11 Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) conferences and institutions. Its purpose is to match the top two teams in a bowl game and to create exciting matchups in four other games.
The No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the Dec. 6 BCS standings will play in the Citi BCS National Championship on Jan. 7, 2010 in Pasadena, Calif. The winner of the game will be presented the Coaches Trophy, emblematic of the national championship. For more information, visit www.bcsfootball.org.