Collegiate Times

Florida Gators head coach Will Muschamp waves to fans following a 14-6 victory over the LSU Tigers at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida, Saturday, October 6, 2012. (Will Vragovic/Tampa Bay Times/MCT)

This Sunday night the first college football BCS poll was released with its usual flaws. 

The poll takes into account the other major college football polls and computer rankings, and at the end of the season is used to determine who plays in the national championship game.

Alabama was ranked No. 1, which was no surprise, followed by Florida at No. 2 and Oregon at number No. 3. Kansas State, Notre Dame, LSU and South Carolina, all SEC teams, rounded out the rest of the top seven in that order.

Besides the four SEC teams in the top seven, Georgia is ranked No. 11 and Mississippi State is No. 12. Compared to the six SEC teams that are ranked, the ACC has just two teams in the top 25, and the Big East has three teams.

The SEC is almost unanimously considered to be the best conference in college football, but the favoritism needs to have a limit. Alabama clearly looks like the best team in football and could very easily go undefeated and win the national championship, but other teams in the conference are overrated.

One of the major factors that the BCS poll takes into account that most other polls do not is computer rankings. The computer rankings weigh strength of conference very highly, and the SEC is far and above any other conference in that regard.

The team that has benefited most has been Florida. Florida is undefeated at 6-0, has played two ranked teams so far this season and has won its games by an average of 15 points. The real test comes in the next two weeks when the Gators play South Carolina and Georgia, as well as at the end of the season against State. 

In all of the other polls, Florida is ranked behind Oregon at No. 3 or 4. When the two are are compared to each other, Oregon is superior in almost every category.

Like Florida, Oregon is 6-0 and has played two ranked teams, but has won its games by an average of 33 points. Its offense is explosive, and it looks like one of the very few teams that can compete with Alabama this year.

At the beginning of the season, Florida looked shaky and didn’t have a set starting quarterback for the first few weeks. Even at this point in the season, Florida is ranked almost dead last in passing yards per game in the country.

Earlier in the season Florida beat Bowling Green by just 13 points. Virginia Tech, which has struggled this season, blew out Bowling Green 37-0.

Oregon has been much more consistent this season and has found a very good starting quarterback in freshman Marcus Mariota.

The only understandable reason why Florida is ranked higher than Oregon is because Florida in in the SEC.

The BCS poll isn’t the only problem. The way that college football has set up their postseason is a problem. The system where team’s rankings determine their bowl game puts voters in a difficult position.

With new players on teams every year it is very hard to rank teams during the season, and there will be teams overrated and underrated every year. While the SEC has teams that are overrated, the Big East is an example of teams being underrated.

Last year in the Big East, the winner of the conference was 10-3 on the season and the conference didn’t look very good. This season, things seem to have changed. The Big East looks much better and currently has three undefeated teams.

Those teams, Louisville, Cincinnati and Rutgers, all have impressive out-of-conference wins over ACC and SEC teams.

Even though these teams are having good seasons and are undefeated so far, they are all ranked below the six SEC teams mentioned above, even though three of the SEC teams have had one loss. The highest ranked out of the three teams is Rutgers at No. 15 in the BCS poll.

The season has been interesting and fun to watch, but after just the first BCS poll we are reminded how the BCS and bowl system are flawed. Everyone has to be looking forward to seeing the playoff system start in two years.  

A version of this article appeared in the Oct 17 issue of the Collegiate Times.