Week 10 of the 2013 College Football season gave Florida State, by beating another top 10 opponent in Miami, a chance to move back into the number 2 spot, taking advantage of Oregon having a bye week before their biggest game of the season, which didn’t have any positional effect on Alabama, standing firm at the top of the BCS standings.

The biggest movers in the rankings were Oklahoma State (after beating Texas Tech) and Michigan State (after an impressive win over Michigan), moving up five spots. The only newcomer to the top 25 this week were Arizona State after their away win over the Washington State Cougars, while Michigan were dropped from the 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	Alabama	.9797	1	1	2613	.9954	1	1540	.9935	2	3	1	3	2	2	2	.950
2	Florida State	.9525	3	3	2444	.9310	3	1436	.9265	1	1	4	1	1	1	1	1.000
3	Oregon	.9435	2	2	2491	.9490	2	1475	.9516	3	2	2	4	3	3	3	.930
4	Ohio State	.8720	4	4	2317	.8827	4	1369	.8832	4	4	3	2	8	5	7	.850
5	Stanford	.7930	5	6	2102	.8008	6	1222	.7884	5	6	5	5	4	9	9	.790
6	Baylor	.7745	6	5	2167	.8255	5	1299	.8381	9	8	11	9	12	7	10	.660
7	Clemson	.7277	8	7	1890	.7200	7	1121	.7232	8	10	6	7	7	10	4	.740
8	Missouri	.6890	9	8	1725	.6571	9	961	.6200	5	5	9	6	5	8	6	.790
9	Auburn	.6686	11	9	1672	.6370	10	959	.6187	7	9	14	8	6	6	5	.750
10	Oklahoma	.6084	10	10	1572	.5989	8	971	.6265	11	7	7	10	13	15	14	.600
11	Miami (FL)	.5246	7	13	1344	.5120	14	747	.4819	12	13	15	11	10	12	8	.580
12	South Carolina	.5111	14	15	1175	.4476	15	722	.4658	10	11	8	13	9	11	11	.620
13	LSU	.4525	13	11	1467	.5589	12	835	.5387	18	21	10	NR	19	19	19	.260
14	Oklahoma State	.4395	18	14	1315	.5010	11	864	.5574	18	18	18	20	22	18	24	.260
15	Texas A&M	.4365	12	12	1426	.5432	13	800	.5161	21	23	19	21	17	22	16	.250
16	Fresno State	.3675	16	17	989	.3768	17	567	.3658	16	17	25	14	23	14	12	.360
17	Michigan State	.3394	22	18	789	.3006	19	446	.2877	13	16	21	12	14	16	15	.430
18	Northern Illinois	.3169	17	20	727	.2770	20	409	.2639	14	22	13	17	20	4	13	.410
19	UCLA	.2904	20	19	768	.2926	18	494	.3187	18	20	20	24	18	20	17	.260
20	Louisville	.2510	19	16	1013	.3859	16	569	.3671	27	NR	17	NR	NR	NR	NR	.000
21	UCF	.2151	23	21	567	.2160	21	340	.2194	23	24	16	22	NR	17	20	.210
22	Arizona State	.1770	NR	24	255	.0971	24	130	.0839	17	12	NR	15	11	24	18	.350
23	Notre Dame	.1662	25	25	155	.0590	25	108	.0697	15	15	12	16	15	23	21	.370
24	Wisconsin	.1288	24	22	450	.1714	22	333	.2148	27	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	.000
25	Texas Tech	.0986	15	23	409	.1558	23	217	.1400	27	NR	23	NR	NR	NR	NR	.000

As Florida State move up in the world after another win over a top 10 team, it doesn’t mean that they’ll stay there. The human polls are easier to predict than the computers, and they have an inherit bias towards certain teams in certain years. Oregon, as long as they win out, will be in the top 2. If they do beat Stanford this weekend in Palo Alto (a Thursday night game), it’s hard seeing anyone left, including in the Pac-12 championship game, stopping them from playing in the national title.

It’s worth mentioning that the last time Florida State started the season 8-0 was in 1999, a season they finished with a perfect 12-0 record, winning the national title.

The same goes for Alabama. We still have other undefeated teams like Ohio State, Baylor, Fresno State and Northern Illinois, but the first two need quite a few teams above them to lose in order to move ahead, not to mention trying to beat the bias towards the SEC of the coaches (a poll that really shouldn’t determine anything) and the Harris poll.

As for the chances of Alabama actually not making it to the title game? Only three times has a team ranked number one at this stage not played in the BCS National Championship Game: Oklahoma (2002), Alabama (2008), and Florida (2009).

Alabama have now been ranked 4th or higher for the last 19 weeks. Oregon have been in the top 5 for 12 consecutive weeks as well. Among all that, three schools reached their highest rankings ever: Baylor at 6, Fresno State at 16 and UCF at 21.

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