Alabama Football: According to old BCS, Tide ranked above Oregon and Texas

Several days ago, I wrote that the CFB Playoff Selection Committee should listen to Urban Meyer. Meyer stated Alabama Football is one of college football’s top four teams.

There is little confidence the Selection Committee will suddenly heed Meyer’s advice and vault the Alabama Crimson Tide into the top four on Tuesday night.

However, the Selection Committee should take notice of all expert opinions. The committee would be wise to consider how teams would be ranked using the old BCS formula. Instead of avoiding all computer rankings as if they were a plague, all worthwhile information should be considered. After all, few complex decisions in today’s world are made without data analysis.

For the last few weeks, I have been touting the algorithms used by ESPN and Jeff Sagarin. Currently, ESPN’s FPI has Alabama Football at No. 4. Sagarin has the Crimson Tide at No. 3.

New analysis shows that if the old BCS formula was used, the Alabama Crimson Tide would be No. 6, above both the Oregon Ducks and the Texas Longhorns. In that scenario, one or more teams in the five above the Crimson Tide would likely fall before the final Selection Committee ranking.

For those who don’t recall, the BCS formula used the AP and Coaches Polls along with six computer rankings, one of which was Jeff Sagarin’s.

The full results from a BCS calculation can be seen at the bottom of this post.

How Alabama Football Stacks Up

Let’s consider how the remaining nine CFB Playoff contenders rate in terms of wins against ranked teams. The BCS formula is used to define the ranked teams.

• Alabama Crimson Tide – (3) Ole Miss, Tennessee and LSU, with a potential 4th Alabama Football win against Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.
• Georgia Bulldogs – (2) Missouri and Ole Miss, with a 3rd and a 4th potentially with wins over Tennessee and Alabama
• Ohio State Buckeyes – (2) Notre Dame and Penn State, with a 3rd and a 4th possible against Michigan and in the Big Ten Championship Game
• Michigan Wolverines – (1) Penn State, with a 2nd and a 3rd possible with a win over Ohio State and in the B1G championship.
• Washington Huskies – (3) Arizona, Oregon and Utah, with two more potential wins against Oregon State and the Pac-12 championship
• Oregon Ducks – (1) Utah, with two more potential wins against Oregon State and in the Pac-12 championship
• Texas Longhorns – (2) Alabama and Kansas State, with potentially a 3rd ranked win in the Big 12 championship
• Florida State Seminoles – (1) LSU and potentially one more ranked win in the ACC championship
• Louisville Cardinals – (1) Notre Dame and potentially one more ranked win in the ACC championship

Alabama football fans can hope the Selection Committee is paying attention to the ‘other’ sources.