I believe the first BCS rankings will be out today.

I believe EIGHT teams ranked higher than NIU in polls lost this weekend.

Polls should be interesting. Time for NIU to leap frog say 3 or 4 teams and move up to what say 19 or 20??

As someone noted elsewhere, L'Ville lost and are in danger of not making the BCS (I assume a second loss might do it).

(10-20-2013 06:57 AM)emu steve Wrote:  As someone noted elsewhere, L'Ville lost and are in danger of not making the BCS (I assume a second loss might do it).

Whichever team wins The American will make the BCS, its the last year that the old Big East AQ applies.

And given the collapse of the old Big East, it seems unlikely that a second The American team would be picked.

At present, Houston, UCF and USF are unbeaten in conference play, so if any one of those three win out, they will go to the BCS. With one loss, Louisville needs help to come through as conference champion.

The new Sagarin BCS rating has NIU 6th and Fresno 20th.

Most are projecting NIU to be 18th in the BCS and Fresno 20th.

(10-20-2013 11:17 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  The new Sagarin BCS rating has NIU 6th and Fresno 20th.

Most are projecting NIU to be 18th in the BCS and Fresno 20th.

That is right.....Sagrin does have you as #6 in pure ELO this week.

I don't see getting to #12 is a problem for an NIU undefeated team with 6 more weeks to go. The problem could be Fresno State if anything.

(10-20-2013 09:38 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  

(10-20-2013 06:57 AM)emu steve Wrote:  As someone noted elsewhere, L'Ville lost and are in danger of not making the BCS (I assume a second loss might do it).

Whichever team wins The American will make the BCS, its the last year that the old Big East AQ applies.

And given the collapse of the old Big East, it seems unlikely that a second The American team would be picked.

At present, Houston, UCF and USF are unbeaten in conference play, so if any one of those three win out, they will go to the BCS. With one loss, Louisville needs help to come through as conference champion.

My bad.

I know that the AAC champ is an automatic and then messed up my post.

What I should have said is that NIU OR Fresno (but only ONE) can make it by being ranked 16 or higher IF the AAC champ is ranked below #16 in the BCS standings.

So we could have an AAC champ (e.g., UCF, etc.) without a high BCS ranking which makes it easier for NIU or Fresno to make it.

(10-20-2013 11:40 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  

(10-20-2013 11:17 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  The new Sagarin BCS rating has NIU 6th and Fresno 20th.

Most are projecting NIU to be 18th in the BCS and Fresno 20th.

That is right.....Sagrin does have you as #6 in pure ELO this week.

I don't see getting to #12 is a problem for an NIU undefeated team with 6 more weeks to go. The problem could be Fresno State if anything.

As the votes keep coming in, i don't think we are going to make it to the top 12.

We beat CMU by 21 points yet we only gained 35 votes in the AP.

Fresno beats UNLV by 24 at home and they gain 167 votes.

Teams ahead and below us keep losing yet we are only gaining votes at a snails pace.

Clear statement towards the bias against NIU this week. But at least Ball State received a vote!

(10-20-2013 11:54 AM)emu steve Wrote:  What I should have said is that NIU OR Fresno (but only ONE) can make it by being ranked 16 or higher IF the AAC champ is ranked below #16 in the BCS standings.

There is no more prospect of an undefeated AAC champion, and its still possible (even if unlikely) for the championship to be won by an 8-4 team. Fresno is already ranked ahead of Louisville in the AP (#15 to #18), and not far ahead in the USA Today Coaches Poll (Louisville #16 to Fresno #18).

And AP#23, Coaches#22 NIU has a CCG to help them make their case if they win out the regular season.

The highest ranking of the three schools actually leading on The American standings is UCF at Coaches#25, AP#21.

(10-20-2013 12:12 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(10-20-2013 11:40 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  

(10-20-2013 11:17 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  The new Sagarin BCS rating has NIU 6th and Fresno 20th.

Most are projecting NIU to be 18th in the BCS and Fresno 20th.

That is right.....Sagrin does have you as #6 in pure ELO this week.

I don't see getting to #12 is a problem for an NIU undefeated team with 6 more weeks to go. The problem could be Fresno State if anything.

As the votes keep coming in, i don't think we are going to make it to the top 12.

We beat CMU by 21 points yet we only gained 35 votes in the AP.

Fresno beats UNLV by 24 at home and they gain 167 votes.

Teams ahead and below us keep losing yet we are only gaining votes at a snails pace.

The AP is a useless poll that has nothing to do with the BCS rankings.

(10-20-2013 12:26 PM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(10-20-2013 12:12 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  As the votes keep coming in, i don't think we are going to make it to the top 12.

We beat CMU by 21 points yet we only gained 35 votes in the AP.

Fresno beats UNLV by 24 at home and they gain 167 votes.

Teams ahead and below us keep losing yet we are only gaining votes at a snails pace.

The AP is a useless poll that has nothing to do with the BCS rankings.

I would agree with you if it weren't for the fact that it is used to help calculate the Harris Poll that makes up 1/3 of the total BCS rankings.

I think NIU will see a decent boost from the computers. The only ones i could find that are updated so far are Sagarin and Massey, who have NIU at #6 and #18, respectively.

http://www.bcsfootball.org/news/story?id=4765872

After taking a closer look at the Sagarins, I think NIU may actually end up 5th, since for some bizarre reason Bethune-Cookman is ranked 4th in the PURE_ELO.

Does anyone know if FCS teams can qualify for the BCS standings?

PURE_ELO Top 25 (raw)

1. Florida State
2. Alabama
3. Missouri
4. Bethune-Cookman
5. Oregon
6. Northern Illinois
7. Fordham
8. Oregon State
9. Virginia Tech
10. Coastal Carolina
11. Ohio State
12. North Dakota State
13. Auburn
14. Texas Tech
15. UCLA
16. Miami Florida
17. Clemson
18. Baylor
19. Stanford
20. Fresno State
21. Lehigh
22. Tennessee State
23. Central Florida
24. Eastern Illinois
25. Mississippi

Though I guess it doesn't really matter, since the highest and lowest computer rankings of the six get thrown out before calculating the BCS standings.

(10-20-2013 12:41 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(10-20-2013 12:26 PM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(10-20-2013 12:12 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  As the votes keep coming in, i don't think we are going to make it to the top 12.

We beat CMU by 21 points yet we only gained 35 votes in the AP.

Fresno beats UNLV by 24 at home and they gain 167 votes.

Teams ahead and below us keep losing yet we are only gaining votes at a snails pace.

The AP is a useless poll that has nothing to do with the BCS rankings.

I would agree with you if it weren't for the fact that it is used to help calculate the Harris Poll that makes up 1/3 of the total BCS rankings.

lol.....What?

No it's not. Where did you come up with that?

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/vault/B...0_2013.pdf

Harris Poll:

16. Louisville (1,046)
18. Fresno State (920)
21. Northern Illinois (518)
34. Ball State (8)

(10-20-2013 12:41 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  I would agree with you if it weren't for the fact that it is used to help calculate the Harris Poll that makes up 1/3 of the total BCS rankings.

No its not ~ from that link its a panel poll, 105 panelists consisting of former coaches, players, administrators, former and current media, selected randomly from 300 submitted from the 10 FBS conferences and "independent organizations".

It replaced the AP poll, it doesn't include it.

Northern Illinois is #21 in the Harris.

Nevermind then, i thought i read that the Harris Poll partially used the AP poll to comprise its rankings.

(10-20-2013 12:53 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  After taking a closer look at the Sagarins, I think NIU may actually end up 5th, since for some bizarre reason Bethune-Cookman is ranked 4th in the PURE_ELO.

Not bizarre at all ~ Sagarin ranks all Division 1 schools. The rankings including point margin make more sense than the Pure_ELO.

Quote: Does anyone know if FCS teams can qualify for the BCS standings?

They'd only use the Pure_ELO ratings of the FBS schools, so, yeah, NIU would be 5th on the Pure_ELO. Filtered for FBS (this is on the fly, not in a spreadsheet, so I might have missed one or two):

PURE_ELO Top 25 FBS

1. Florida State
2. Alabama
3. Missouri
4. Oregon
5. Northern Illinois
6. Oregon State
7. Virginia Tech
8. Ohio State
9. Auburn
10. Texas Tech
11. UCLA
12. Miami Florida
13. Clemson
14. Baylor
15. Stanford
16. Fresno State
17. Central Florida
18. Mississippi
19. LSU
20. Oklahoma
21. Michigan State
22. Texas A&M
23. Georgia
24. Pitt
25. Notre Dame

NIU at 18, Fresno at 17. Both ahead of any AAC team. NIU clearly the better team in the computers, but the biased human polls are holding them back.

(10-20-2013 07:42 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  NIU at 18, Fresno at 17. Both ahead of any AAC team. NIU clearly the better team in the computers, but the biased human polls are holding them back.

Today it looks like a dog fight (Huskies and Bulldogs) for a BCS bid.

(10-20-2013 07:49 PM)emu steve Wrote:  

(10-20-2013 07:42 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  NIU at 18, Fresno at 17. Both ahead of any AAC team. NIU clearly the better team in the computers, but the biased human polls are holding them back.

Today it looks like a dog fight (Huskies and Bulldogs) for a BCS bid.

NIU gets a lot more love from the computers than Fresno, though I don't see that lasting, given both teams remaining schedules.

Still, the boost from the computers was significant enough to push NIU up three and four spots from the human polls. With any luck, the voters take notice of that and give them some more respect. So far, they've pretty much been ignoring NIU.