The hypothetical BCS standings for week 10 of the 2014 College Football season are out without much of a chance. Mississippi State and Florida State occupy the top two spots while Auburn and Alabama complete the final four with another threesome of SEC West teams.
Right now, despite having the same exact record, Mississippi State seem to be a cut above everyone else, including Florida State. They top both human polls and have three number one rankings from the computers. Florida State have just one computer putting them at number one and one of them actually ranks them at #13. Auburn, up a spot thanks to their win in Ole Miss, are ranked as the number one team by two computers and never lower than number three.
These hypothetical rankings were made by taking the AP Poll as part of the human factor instead of the Harris poll which doesn’t exist anymore. Combine that with the Coaches poll to the results provided by six different computers (Anderson & Hester College Football Computer Rankings, Billingsly Report, Colley Matrix, Massey Ratings, Jeff Sagarin’s College Football Rankings, Peter Wolfe’s Rankings) and you get more or less the BCS.
But is anything substantially different? Not a lot. Ole Miss took a serious dive, and so did Georgia after losing to Florida. It puts a serious dent in their claim for the SEC East title. Missouri aren’t ranked by anyone, but they have just one conference loss, and right now look like the team that will make it in to the Conference Championship Game, facing an almost definite beat-down by one of the Western powers.
Oregon remain at #5 but have made the road towards the Pac-12 championship a bit easier and clearer, bouncing a thorn in their side by beating Stanford. They might be out of the Final Four now, but if they win out and win their conference, it’s probably a 100% guarantee that they’re in the playoffs. Only two of the computers put them in the top 4. Ole Miss still have two computers rankings them among the final four, and Oklahoma, #16 according to all the calculations, are number four according to one of them.