Tuesday, October 16, 2007

How have the other "3"s fared?

The fate of the third ranked team in the initial BCS poll is mixed. Take a look.
Year No. 3 in first
BCS poll
Played in championship game RecordFinal Ranking
2006MichiganNo11-29
2005Virginia TechNo11-27
2004OklahomaYes12-13
2003Virginia TechNo8-5unranked
2002Notre DameNo10-317
2001UCLANo7-4unranked
2000Virginia TechNo11-16
1999Virginia TechYes11-13
1998TennesseeYes13-01


While three teams in the spot have gone on to the title game, two have stumbled all the way out of the rankings by season's end. Only the 1998 Tennessee team went on from the No. 3 slot in the first BCS ballot all the way to a national title.

What does this prove? There is a long road ahead. I'm parroting Jags here, but we should just focus on Virginia Tech.

7 comments:

Eagle in Brighton said...

Not to get into "what if's," but check out Wake Forests remaining conference schedule: UNC, @UVA, @Clemson, and finishing up with the fighting TOB's at home.

A lot can happen, but for how "hard" our final stretch of conference games is, Wake's is about as easy as one can imagine (avoiding VT, and the FL schools).

Being practical here, if the ACC championship is the goal, keep an eye on WF in the coming weeks, as giving them a second conference L is beyond out control.

Eagle in Brighton said...

Btw, Clemson's Sporting Gnome blog has the most legit ACC schedule going. Check it out if you're interested in the what's in store for the rest of the conference.

http://sportinggnomes.com/images/
Schedule07.jpg

matthew2 said...

https://r.espn.go.com/espn/contests/07GameChangingPerformance/index?cmp=ncaafb07facevid

vote for BC in the ESPN pontiac game changing performance contest

(Although I had trouble viewing ours and Kentucky's...)

matthew2 said...

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?page=bowlprojections7

for anyone who missed ESPN's bowl projections...

One says championship, one says orange bowl... can you imagine?? I would take either.

Brian said...

Interesting that we had a hand in knocking off 2 of these #3 schools in the first BCS standings. ND in 2002 and we were the beneficiary of the VTech slide in 2003.

In 2005, we got beat up though by VTech in Blacksburg. Hopefully we can be on the same side of history this time around.

Also, I'm a little concerned about WFU, but think that they will have another ACC loss before its all said and done.

Darius said...

ATLeagle, do you plan on continuing this little research piece each week? It'd be cool to see how BC's fate solidifies over the course of the next 6 weeks by looking at whatever team was in the equivalent position--be that #3 or #1 or #8--over the last decade.

ATL_eagle said...

Probably not Darius. There is not much to tell. For the No. 3 team to make the championship game, they have to remain undefeated.