Florida State did get hurt in the ranking as Wisconsin is hot on their heels. I do give the voters at least that much credit that they didn't leave FSU a strong 5 as they were the week before.
Yea, remember a couple years ago, Ohio State would BARELY beat any of their opponants.....most of the time they were down through the entire game and would come back at the very last minute. They didn't drop! Hell, I believe that's the year they won a National Championship!
You are right, but that season Ohio St went undefeated. Should a team with 1 or 2 losses jump a team for the top spot (if that team is undefeated)? The thing with college football is that the final rankings are supposed to take into account the entire season, meaning undefeated teams (no matter how poorly they have played) should and do have an advantage over teams with losses. Another thing that rarely gets mentioned is that teams are rewarded for past seasons, that where the preseason rankings come from. When LSU won the NC last season we didn't start the season in the top 10, because of our record from the year before. Ohst put together a string of strong seasons, as well holding (at the time) the longest winning streak. Let's look at that 2002 Ohio State football season. First, Ohio State was the first NCAA Division IA Collegiant football team to achieve a 14-0 season. Here was that season: 08/17/2002 Preseason Polls (AP - 13 ESPN - 13) 1 08/24/2002 Texas Tech University W 45 - 21 (AP - 12 ESPN-12) 2 09/07/2002 Kent State University W 51 - 17 (AP - 8 ESPN 9) 3 09/14/2002 Washington State University W 25 -7 (AP - 6 ESPN - 8) 4 09/21/2002 University of Cincinnati W 23 - 19 (AP - 6 ESPN - 6) 5 09/28/2002 Indiana University W 45 - 17 (AP - 6 ESPN - 6) 6 10/05/2002 Northwestern University W 27 - 16 (AP - 5 ESPN - 5) 7 10/12/2002 San Jose State University W 50 - 7 (AP - 5 ESPN - 5) 8 10/19/2002 University of Wisconsin W 19 - 14 (AP - 4 ESPN - 4 BCS - 6) 9 10/26/2002 Pennsylvania State University W 13 - 7 (AP -4 ESPN -4 BCS-5) 10 11/02/2002 University of Minnesota W 24 - 3 (AP - 4 ESPN - 6 BCS - 2) 11 11/09/2002 Purdue University W 10 - 6 (AP - 3 ESPN - 3 BCS - 1) 12 11/16/2002 University of Illinois W 23 - 16 (OT) (AP -2 ESPN -2 BCS -2) 13 11/23/2002 University of Michigan W 14 - 9 (AP - 2 ESPN - 2 BCS - 2) 14 01/03/2003 University of Miami W 31 - 24 (2OT) (AP -2 ESPN -2 BCS -2) 01/04/2003 National Champions (AP - 1 ESPN - 1 BCS - 1) While Ohio State won several close games, they deserved to be named the NC. If going 14-0 is not enough, then what does it take to be a NC. Should a team with 1 or 2 losses surpass a team who wins ALL their games. If you check out the rankings I included in the above record, you will see that during the season Ohst did drop in the rankings (although it was a slight drop).
Notice that USC almost lost 3 times this year and didn't drop. Also, Miami almost lost twice and didn't drop.
