By Hannah Gordon
Daily Bruin Reporter
The Bruins came out No. 3 in the Bowl Championship Series
standings released Monday afternoon.
Oklahoma is No. 1 in the rankings and Nebraska is No. 2, but
that will change this Saturday when the two play each other.
Provided UCLA wins this weekend, it should move into one of the top
two spots.
The BCS, which determines the teams that go to the national
championship game, uses a formula composed of the Associated Press
poll, the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll, eight computer
rankings, strength of schedule and number of losses.
On top of determining the national championship game to be held
this year at the Rose Bowl, the BCS also sets the match-ups for the
Fiesta Bowl, the Sugar Bowl and the Orange Bowl. Champions from the
six major conferences ““ the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12,
Pac-10 and SEC ““ qualify for a BCS game, as well as two
at-large teams.
Introduced in 1998, the initial standings released by the BCS
have never paired both teams that played in the national
championship game.
“This BCS stuff doesn’t matter right now. There are
too many more games to be played,” UCLA head coach Bob Toledo
said.
Toledo knows that all too well, after being kept out of the
national championship game in 1998 when UCLA lost its last game to
Miami. Florida State, who lost their second game in 1998, went to
the championship game against Tennessee instead.
“I learned that I’m not in favor of the BCS,”
Toledo said of the experience.
One undefeated team that may be cursing the BCS is Miami, who is
No. 1 in the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls, but No. 4 in the BCS due
to strength of schedule. Miami felt cheated last year as well when
they beat Florida State only to see the Seminoles still end up in
the national championship game due to the BCS formula.
“I don’t need a computer. Teams are going to
fall,” Miami head coach Larry Coker said. “The month of
November is as critical as December. We saw three undefeated teams
fall last week. The only thing we can control is to make sure
we’re not one of them.”
For the moment, UCLA is pleased with the BCS. The Bruins feel
that if they go undefeated in the Pac-10, they should end up in the
national championship game.
“If we do our part, I think the BCS works,” UCLA
quarterback Cory Paus said.
But the Bruins are not getting ahead of themselves.
“An undefeated team falls every week,” Paus added.
“As soon as you lose, you’re going to be up there (in
the rankings).”
The way Toledo sees it, at 6-0, the Bruins have just qualified
for a bowl game.
“It just depends what bowl game you want to go to,”
he said, ” I told the guys right now we’re in the
toilet bowl and we’re working our way up.”
With reports from the Associated Press.