One of the biggest controversies of the BCS is that the computers cannot take margin of victory into account. This means the Texas blowout of Missouri (41-7) would be given the same weight even if the Horns beat them by two points on a last second touchdown, or needed a blocked field goal as time expired to escape with a victory.
So you’ll notice that close victories by Iowa and Alabama haven’t hurt their standings among the BCS computers. For example, Jeff Sagarin still has Iowa at #1 in his BCS rankings, but in his own personal rankings that he claims are more accurate (because they take margin of victory into account), Iowa stands at #12. A converse example is Texas; Sagarin’s BCS ratings has the Horns at #14 because they have a weak schedule, but his personal ratings has them at #4 because they have destroyed teams this year, including Missouri this last Saturday.
So after a week in which Iowa and Alabama both came within inches of losing to unranked opponents, and Florida needed all four quarters to beat Mississippi St., those three teams still sit atop my CompuDrew ratings because I don’t take margin of victory into account. Next week I’ll explain why I chose to exclude margin of victory from the CompuDrew ratings.
One note: conferences like the Pac 10 will have improving SOS as the season goes on, which is partially why Oregon and USC jumped up this week.
