On November 4, The Ohio State was ranked No. 1 in America by both the Harris Poll people and the USA Today coaches. They were ranked No. 1 by most of the computers that are used in the BCS system as well.
The reason for this, apparently, is that The Ohio State was undefeated. At that point, the Buckeyes did not have a single victory over any of the Top 25 teams in the BCS. They had just mauled Wisconsin at home, which seemed reasonably impressive, although Wisconsin had already been mauled by Penn State, which had just lost to Illinois, which lost to Iowa.
On November 4, Kansas was ranked No. 5 in America by both the Harris Poll people and the USA Today coaches. The computers thought even more of the Jayhawks, ranking them fourth. Kansas was also undefeated, and had just hung up 76 points on Nebraska at home, the most points ever scored against the Cornhuskers.
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On November 11, The Ohio State was ranked No. 7 in America by both the Harris Bowl people and the USA Today coaches. The Buckeyes were ranked sixth by the computers. They had just lost at home to an unranked Illinois team. Since the Buckeyes did not have a single impressive victory and since they had loaded up their non-conference schedule with smaller Ohio schools to beat up on, most people assumed that Ohio State was out of the national championship picture.
On November 11, Kansas was ranked No. 4 by the Harris Bowl people and the USA Today coaches, but they were ranked No. 2 by the computers. The Jayhakws had just beaten bowl-bound Oklahoma State by two touchdowns in Stillwater on national television. The writers, clearly, still thought the Jayhawks were pretenders, and had them ranked behind three one-loss teams — LSU, Oregon and Oklahoma.
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On November 18, The Ohio State was ranked No. 5 in America by both the Harris Bowl people and the USA Today coaches. They were tied for third with the computers. They had earned this jump by winning at Michigan 14-3 in one of the most boring games ever played. It was Michigan’s fourth loss of the season, their third loss in the Big House, and shortly after the game ended, Wolverines coach Lloyd Carr stepped down.
On November 18, Kansas was ranked No. 2 by the Harris Bowl people and the USA Today coaches (are these guys cribbing off each other?) and also ranked No. 2 by the computers. The Jayhawks had just obliterated Iowa State 45-7, though this was not the reason for the jump. Two teams in front of them had lost their quarterbacks and lost to BCS unrakned teams — Oregon lost to Arizona by 10 and Oklahoma had given up 34 points and lost at Texas Tech by a touchdown. The Jayhawks were still undefeated, and still behind one-loss LSU in the polls.
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On November 25, The Ohio State was ranked No. 3 by the Harrisers, the coaches, and the computers. The Buckeyes had faced idle during the week, but they moved up two spots because LSU lost to unranked Arkansas at home, while Kansas had lost to Missouri. It could be pointed out here that Kansas’ loss seems SIGNIFICANTLY better than Ohio State’s loss to Illinois when you consider that:
1. Missouri would be ranked No. 1 by everybody except the coaches while Illinois was unranked.
2. The Missouri loss was on a neutral site in Kansas City, while Ohio State’s loss to Illinois was at home.
3. Missouri actually BEAT Illinois on a neutral site this year.
No matter. The Ohio State moved up to No. 3.
On November 25, Kansas was ranked No. 6 by the Harris Bowl voters, they tied for fifth in the coaches’ poll, and they were ranked fourth by the computers. It almost seems now like people were just DYING to move Kansas down in the polls. A loss to No. 1 Missouri on a neutral field seemed a good enough excuse, apparently.
LSU, incidentally, ranked seventh in the BCS after its loss to Arkansas. Below Kansas, you will note.
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On December 2nd, The Ohio State was ranked No. 1 by the Harris Bowl voters, by the USA Today coaches. They apparently had moved up the two spots because of their second consecutive impressive victory over idle, this time in the nonexistent Big 10 Championship Game. The computers, being silly computers, were not as impressed as others by the Buckeyes victory over nobody and kept The Ohio State ranked third.
The Buckeyes, by virtue of the BCS system, was ranked the overall No. 1 team.
Kansas, however, did not fare as well against idle. Apparently, despite not playing anyone, Kansas actually FELL in the Harris Poll and the USA Today coaches poll from 5/6 to 8/8. The Jayhawks also dropped from forth to fifth in the computer rankings. The reason for this seemed to be that Missouri lost to Oklahoma, thus devaluing the Kansas loss.
Of course, Missouri — as mentioned — had also beaten Illinois, which had beaten Ohio State in Columbus. But nobody really wanted to do the math on that.
LSU jumped from No. 7 to No. 2 with its apparently impressive 21-14 victory over Tennessee. It wasn’t as impressive as Alabama’s 41-17 victory over Tennessee, but so it goes …
Our final standings are as follows.
Ohio State
Record: 11-1
Home record: 6-1
Best win: Over Wisconsin at home.
Loss: Against three-loss Illinois at home.
Victories over bowl teams: Five.
Final ranking: No. 1.
Kansas
Record: 11-1
Home record: 7-0
Best win: At Texas A&M.
Loss: Against two-loss Missouri team on neutral.
Victories over bowl teams: Four.
Final ranking: No. 8.
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http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2007/12/04/a-bcs-timeline/JoePo proceeds to put a clown suit on all the haters out there (K-State/Mizzou fans). Thanks for the laughs guys. Enjoy your bowl season sitting at home. One more day until I leave for Miami, FL.
