By Brenna Jefferies
The past two years the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) national championship bowl has been pretty predictable, with Texas, Alabama and Florida circling like vultures for the number one spot. But this year that spot has been tossed from team to team like a hot potato – no one seems to want to be in that position. Number one teams have been falling right and left.
It all started when first-ranked Alabama fell to No. 19 South Carolina. Ohio State was next in line when it sat on top for only one week before being upset by Wisconsin, and in a Big 12 shootout the Missouri Tigers dethroned the Oklahoma Sooners by nine points.
Now with Oregon ranked first in the AP Top 25 poll and Auburn No. 1 in the BCS poll, America wonders what will happen next week. It makes a team in the top 10 nervous when every team in first place loses.
Boise State and TCU have been leapfrogged for the second week in a row, but neither is likely to complain since no one is safe this year in the race for the national championship.
In the rankings are weekly surprises and upsets. With last year being so predictable, college sports fans are waiting with bated breath to see what will happen.
As an avid Texas Longhorn fan, I have been disappointed in its season but have enjoyed watching the underdog upsets and the shootouts week after week. When a season is predictable, the sport loses its fans. But when seasons like this come along, the suspense of who will end up on top draws spectators back. Right now, no team is safe.
The 2008 season definitely sticks in my mind for many reasons, but mostly because of the controversy surrounding who deserved to be number one. Texas lost to the Texas Tech Red Raiders in Lubbock, 39-33, but beat the Oklahoma Sooners in the Cotton Bow, 45-35. Then Oklahoma went on to beat Tech. Who was ranked higher, Texas or Oklahoma? The process of how teams are ranked is one-third computer input and two-thirds human input. The computer chose Oklahoma.
With predictable seasons, computer input is unnecessary – everyone knows who will be headed to the Rose Bowl in January. But every few years a season of unpredictable upsets comes along, and then we look to the computer’s input. Sometimes it is difficult to decide who should be number one.
At the end of this season, the number one team will most likely have at least one loss, which makes the games much more exciting. No one knows who the national champion will be. And with Baylor ranked in the top 25 for the first time in 13 years, anything is possible.
