BATON ROUGE — LSU made its biggest jump to date in the Bowl Championship Series Standings on Monday as the Tigers moved up two spots to No. 5 in the standings, which were released by the National Football Foundation.
More importantly than the No. 5 ranking is the fact that LSU’s BCS average jumped from .6987 a week ago to .8224 this week. The Tigers are ranked No. 4 in both the USA Today Coaches poll and the Harris Interactive poll. The Tigers also jumped five spots from No. 13 to No. 8 in the computer average following the 16-13 overtime win over Alabama.
The Tigers, winners of seven straight, bring an 8-1 overall mark and 5-1 league record into Saturday’s game against 3-6 Ole Miss.
The Tigers also pulled closer to an idle Penn State this week. The Nittany Lions, along with Miami, are the two one-loss teams that stand ahead of the Tigers in the BCS Standings. Southern Cal and Texas continue to be ranked Nos. 1-2 respectively, in the poll.
Going into their final game of the season on Saturday against Michigan State, Penn State has a BCS average of .8520, just percentage points behind Miami, who has a .8906 average, and percentage points ahead of LSU (.8224).
Other teams in the BCS top 10 include Virginia Tech at No. 6 with a .7895 average, Ohio State at No. 7 with a .7295 average, Alabama at No. 8 with a .6893 average, Notre Dame at No. 9 with a .6805 average and Oregon at No. 10 with a .6803 average.
Other SEC teams in the BCS Standings include Auburn at No. 13, Georgia at No. 16, Florida at No. 22 and South Carolina at No. 23.