BATON ROUGE — The first Bowl Championship Series Standings were released on Sunday and LSU found itself ranked No. 13 in the standings that will ultimately determine which two teams play for the national title in Miami in January.
The Tigers, now 5-1 overall following Saturday’s 24-17 win over South Carolina, have a BCS average of .4987. The BCS Standings are comprised of two human elements ? the Harris Interactive Poll and the USA Today Coaches Poll ? as well as the computer polls.
LSU moved up three spots to No. 11 in this week’s USA Today Coaches Poll, while the Tigers jumped one position from No. 12 to No. 11 in the Harris Interactive rankings following the win over the Gamecocks.
The computer polls were another story for LSU as the Tigers have an average computer ranking of No. 19 in the nation. LSU was ranked high as No. 9 in the Billingsley computer poll, but as low as No. 25 in the Colley Matrix poll. The BCS Standings, which drop the highest and lowest computer rankings, take the average of the four remaining polls to calculate a teams’ computer rank.
To no surprise, Texas is No. 1 in the BCS Standings with a .9979 average, followed by Alabama, Penn State, Oklahoma and Southern California.
Oklahoma State starts the bottom half of the top 10 followed by Georgia at No. 7, Texas Tech at No. 8, Ohio State at No. 9 and Florida at No. 10.
Last year, LSU completed the regular season ranked No. 2 in the final BCS Standings and then went on to beat No. 1 ranked Ohio State in the BCS National Championship Game. LSU remains the only team in the history of the BCS to have won a pair of BCS National Titles.
LSU returns to action on Saturday when the Tigers host Georgia at 2:30 p.m. in Tiger Stadium in a game that will be televised by CBS.
AP Top 25
1. Texas (65) 7-0 1,625
2. Alabama 7-0 1,543
3. Penn State 8-0 1,506
4. Oklahoma 6-1 1,358
5. Florida 5-1 1,307
6. USC 5-1 1,292
7. Oklahoma State 7-0 1,252
8. Texas Tech 7-0 1,194
9. Georgia 6-1 1,117
10. Ohio State 7-1 1,053
11. LSU 5-1 987
12. Utah 8-0 943
13. Boise State 6-0 849
14. South Florida 6-1 674
15. TCU 7-1 643
16. Missouri 5-2 568
17. Pittsburgh 5-1 540
18. Brigham Young 6-1 412
19. Kansas 5-2 364
20. Ball State 7-0 357
21. Georgia Tech 6-1 338
22. Tulsa 7-0 321
23. Boston College 5-1 281
24. Florida State 5-1 190
25. Minnesota 6-1 149
Others Receiving Votes
Northwestern 62, Virginia Tech 62, Vanderbilt 61, Michigan State 15, North Carolina 14, Kentucky 10, Maryland 10, Cincinnati 9, Oregon 8, Arizona 6, California 3, Oregon State 2.
Dropped From Rankings
Virginia Tech 17, North Carolina 18, Michigan State 20, Wake Forest 21, Vanderbilt 22, California 25.
USA Today Poll
1. Texas (58) 7-0 1,522
2. Alabama (1) 7-0 1,436
3. Penn State (2) 8-0 1,413
4. USC 5-1 1,264
5. Oklahoma 6-1 1,218
6. Texas Tech 7-0 1,210
7. Florida 5-1 1,184
8. Oklahoma State 7-0 1,083
9. Georgia 6-1 1,067
10. Ohio State 7-1 995
11. LSU 5-1 903
12. Utah 8-0 891
13. Boise State 6-0 786
14. South Florida 6-1 643
15. TCU 7-1 582
16. Missouri 5-2 551
17. Brigham Young 6-1 464
18. Kansas 5-2 342
19. Tulsa 7-0 328
20. Pittsburgh 5-1 292
21. Georgia Tech 6-1 282
22. Ball State 7-0 274
23. Florida State 5-1 258
24. Northwestern 6-1 177
25. Minnesota 6-1 165
Others Receiving Votes
Boston College 159, Michigan State 92, Virginia Tech 77, North Carolina 28, Oregon 27, Cincinnati 26, Vanderbilt 20, Kentucky 15, Wake Forest 14, Maryland 12, Arizona 11, Fresno State 4, Illinois 4, California 2, Notre Dame 2, Colorado 1, East Carolina 1.
Dropped From Rankings
Michigan State 17, Virginia Tech 18, North Carolina 21, California 22, Vanderbilt 23.
Harris Interactive Poll
Rank Team Record Points Previous Week’s Rank
1 Texas (104) 7-0 2,838 1
2 Alabama (6) 7-0 2,692 2
3 Penn State (3) 8-0 2,631 3
4 Oklahoma 6-1 2,357 4
5 USC 5-1 2,327 5
6 Florida 5-1 2,225 6
7 Texas Tech 7-0 2,179 7
8 Oklahoma State 7-0 2,046 10
9 Georgia 6-1 1,997 9
10 Ohio State 7-1 1,814 13
11 LSU 5-1 1,750 12
12 Utah (1) 8-0 1,679 14
13 Boise State 6-0 1,498 15
14 South Florida 6-1 1,160 19
15 TCU 7-1 990 NR
16 Missouri 5-2 978 11
17 BYU 6-1 932 8
18 Pittsburgh 5-1 763 25
19 Kansas 5-2 634 16
20 Ball State 7-0 578 23
21 Tulsa 7-0 528 NR
22 Georgia Tech 6-1 503 NR
23 Florida State 5-1 447 NR
24 Boston College 5-1 366 NR
25 Minnesota 6-1 284 NR