| Year | No. 3 in first BCS poll | Played in championship game | Record | Final Ranking |
| 2006 | Michigan | No | 11-2 | 9 |
| 2005 | Virginia Tech | No | 11-2 | 7 |
| 2004 | Oklahoma | Yes | 12-1 | 3 |
| 2003 | Virginia Tech | No | 8-5 | unranked |
| 2002 | Notre Dame | No | 10-3 | 17 |
| 2001 | UCLA | No | 7-4 | unranked |
| 2000 | Virginia Tech | No | 11-1 | 6 |
| 1999 | Virginia Tech | Yes | 11-1 | 3 |
| 1998 | Tennessee | Yes | 13-0 | 1 |
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.
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.
ReplyDeleteA 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.
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.
ReplyDeletehttp://sportinggnomes.com/images/
Schedule07.jpg
https://r.espn.go.com/espn/contests/07GameChangingPerformance/index?cmp=ncaafb07facevid
ReplyDeletevote for BC in the ESPN pontiac game changing performance contest
(Although I had trouble viewing ours and Kentucky's...)
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?page=bowlprojections7
ReplyDeletefor anyone who missed ESPN's bowl projections...
One says championship, one says orange bowl... can you imagine?? I would take either.
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.
ReplyDeleteIn 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteProbably not Darius. There is not much to tell. For the No. 3 team to make the championship game, they have to remain undefeated.
ReplyDelete