Week eight of the 2011 college football took a turn for the crazy and it looks like the week nine BCS rankings will get a much needed shakeup. The Stanford Cardinal will benefit from this shakeup as two teams ahead of them lost and could conceivably move Stanford up to sixth in the rankings.
The No. 3 Oklahoma Sooners and No. 6 Wisconsin Badgers both lost Saturday evening. Wisconsin should definitely drop behind Stanford given their close proximity in the rankings. Oklahoma likely will as well, but the human and computer polls have been known to throw a curve ball from time to time. We'll have to wait and see how they handle what was a crazy Saturday.
The Stanford Cardinal handled their business Saturday evening as they crushed the Washington Huskies 65-21. No. 25 Washington was viewed as the first significant challenge to Stanford but they were no match for the Cardinal ground game.
Stanford is in a position to gain some ground moving forward as their computer rankings should only improve in the coming weeks (as long as they keep winning). The Cardinal had a very poor schedule to start the season, but starting with Washington they face USC, Stanford and a decent Notre Dame team. That will boost their computer rating, which could be enough to get them past Clemson and maybe Boise State if all three remain undefeated this season.
With Saturday in the books, here is an attempt to project the second BCS rankings. While awaiting the latest polls, the computer ratings will include the USA Today/Coaches Poll, Harris Interactive Poll, Sagarin Ratings, Anderson & Hester, Billingsley Report, ColleyMatrix, Massey Ratings, and Wolfe Ratings. While we don't have computer ratings in full quite yet, here are my week nine BCS rankings projections:
1. LSU
2. Alabama
3. Boise State
4. Oklahoma State
5. Clemson
6. Stanford
7. Oklahoma
8. Oregon
9. Arkansas
10. Kansas State