The First BCS Poll of 2012

For the second straight week in college football, at least two top five teams lost to teams outside of the top five. Last week, Florida State lost to North Carolina State, LSU was upset by Florida, and Georgia lost to South Carolina. This week, LSU turned the tables on South Carolina by defeating them and West Viginia got blown out by Texas Tech. With the first BCS Polls just coming out, here is my review of the first released BCS poll.

SEC Pinwheel featuring all 14 teams, with half of them in
the top 25 of the initial BCS Standings
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The power of the SEC is shown in the BCS. Alabama (#1 in AP Poll, #1 in USA Today Poll,) has been dominating in every game they've played. It is clear that they are well deserving of the top spot in the BCS Poll. I am surprised that Florida (#3, #4) was ranked second. The teams they have played are a main reason for their ranking so high. They beat two one-loss teams in Texas A&M and LSU. They also have South Carolina and Georgia up next. The first two one-loss teams in the BCS Poll are LSU (#6 ,#6) and South Carolina (#9, #8) at six and seven respectively. Both are well deserving of their spots, with close losses to highly ranked teams, as stated in the first paragraph. The other SEC teams in the Poll are Georgia (#13, #12), who are 5-1 and ranked 11th in the poll, undefeated Mississippi State (#15, #16) is in the 12th spot, and 5-1 Texas A&M (#20, #19) is ranked 18th. 

The SEC team that I find most interesting is the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Last year, they were 7-6 with a 2-6 in conference record. They won their bowl game against Wake Forest. They haven't faced much competition, but their upcoming schedule is tough. The toughest part of their roster is a three week period starting on October 27th to November 10th. It starts in Tuscaloosa with a game against Alabama , then a home game vs. Texas A&M.  Next they travel to Baton Rouge to face the LSU Tigers. They have a good running game, led by LaDarius Perkins. In three of the last four games, Perkins has rushed for over 100 yards, including 179 vs. Troy. They also have a top fight receiver in Chad Bumpkins, who currently has 6 TD catches and averages 16.7 per catches. 

West Virginia dropped massively in the polls (#5 to #17, #4 to #15) after a surprising blowout against Texas Tech (#18, #20). I thought that they had a chance to make a run for an appearance in the BCS title game. It was a very unusual loss. The Mountaineers had no turnovers and have only five less first downs then the Red Raiders. The big factors were Texas Tech's Seth Doege had about 6 more average yards per pass then Geno Smith and West Virginia had five turnovers on downs.  For any team, that is going to put them in a hole. The big loss really put them in a hole, starting the BCS Poll at 13 and most likely out of the championship equation.

During  the last few years, the Big East has been the joke of the BCS. They don't have good teams and they don't deserve a BCS Bowl bid. They lost their most successful team in West Virginia. However, they have three undefeated teams left after seven weeks, Louisville (#16, #14), Rutgers (#19, #17), and Cincinnati (#21, #18). In the BCS Poll, Rutgers placed in at 15, Louisville is 16th and Cincinnati is 21st. Each team has had victories over teams from top conferences. The Scarlet Knights' big victory was against Arkansas, Louisville had a good victory over UNC, and the Bearcats of Cincinnati beat Virginia Tech. All teams are going to face off each other and whichever one can beat each other will most likely be in the BCS.

Beau Blankenship dives for the end zone
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There is only one team in the BCS Poll from a non-BCS conference, Boise State (#24, #22) who the BCS has at 22nd. However, if any mid-major should be in the first BCS Poll of the season should be the Ohio Bobcats (#25, NR). The Bobcats are one of the twelve currently undefeated teams , the only undefeated team from a mid-major conference, and the only undefeated team not in the Poll (excluding 7-0 Ohio State, whose ineligible for a bowl game). The Bobcats have a star running back in Beau Blankenship. Blankenship is second in FBS football with 951 rushing yards and his 1075 yards from scrimmage ranks him third in the country. In six of the team's games, he had 100+ rushing yards. Against UMASS, Blankenship had an incredible game, rushing for 269 yards on 43 carries, averaging 6.3 yards per carry, and 2 touchdowns. He is a top runner and if he is on, the whole team will be on.