Florida State debuted at number two in the initial BCS standings for 2013 after a blowout of Clemson. Photo: USA Today Sports
As a result of their blowout victory over Clemson Saturday night, the Florida State Seminoles are officially back in the national championship hunt, one that has seemed to elude the program since the dawn of the BCS era. Florida State was ranked second in the first BCS standings of the 2013 season, which would make them the team on pace to challenge Alabama, the two-time defending BCS champs, in the final year of the BCS Era.
Alabama takes the top spot in the BCS standings, as expected, but Florida State jumps past the Pac 12 favorite, Oregon, in a bit of a surprise. Florida State's first place computer ranking helped nudge the Seminoles past the Ducks. Oregon is third in the rankings, with Ohio State right behind them. Missouri is ranked fifth in the BCS standings. Here are the complete BCS rankings for this week, courtesy of the National Football Foundation.
Fresno State debuts in a very favorable spot in the BCS standings. Ranked 17th, the Bulldogs are now in a terrific position to slide in to a BCS bowl game. The highest ranked non-AQ conference champion will get an automatic spot in the BCS if they finish ahead of an AQ conference champion. Louisville is currently ranked 20th in the BCS standings, and Central Florida is ranked 23rd. One of those teams will likely win the American conference, which means if Fresno State can keep winning games, the Bulldogs could very well be BCS bound. We will explore the Fresno State situation more at a later time, but also take note of last year's BCS crasher, Northern Illinois. The Huskies are ranked 18th in the standings, also ahead of Louisville and Central Florida. NIU and Fresno State could go down to the wire in pursuit of a slice of the BCS pie. Again, we'll explore how this works later on.
Kevin McGuire is the managing editor of Crystal Ball Run. Follow McGuire on Twitter,Facebook and Google+.
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