First BCS rankings: Sound and furor signifying nothing

• Nearly three months before the title game, there's way too much on-field data to be collected
• Only Alabama and Florida can truly say they control their destiny
• Safest scenario is that SEC champ will be one of the teams playing for the crown Jan. 7

Furor. Controversy. Debate. The last weeks of the presidential campaign? Nah, the first release of the Bowl Championship Series standings Sunday.

It's a nice publicity gimmick to fill column space and talk show hours, but is there another good reason to publish such a thing 85 days before the championship game? No.

The ratings must all be written down in pencil, because obsolescence is always one Saturday away. Headline: Alabama is No. 1! Oh, really? And what does that mean if the Tide lose Nov. 3 at LSU?

So various scenarios will now be howled about, and most of them will never happen.

Imagine the anguish from the NCAA putting out a basketball tournament bracket Jan. 20.

"It's not what you can do, it's not the potential that you have,'' Nick Saban said.
"It's what you do.''

BCS ratings in mid-October are the personification of insufficient data. They
might end up accurate (and often have), or might not. But what is their value on Oct. 14, other than to set a pecking order based on incomplete pecking? By strictly what's happened on the field to date, I'd go Alabama, Notre Dame,
Florida, Kansas State and Oregon at the top. But that's the point; there is way
too much yet to happen on the field for any list to mean anything.

More accurate to rank truisms than teams at this point. This would be the BCS top five:

1. The Southeastern Conference champion will be one of the BCS finalists. Fire would engulf the tuba section and the goal posts would turn to salt if that didn't happen. So, very likely, all this fuss is about who the other team will be.

2. Alabama and Florida are the only teams that can truly say they control their destiny. If the Tide win out, no rational entity — human or computer — would argue they belong. "They are one of the best teams I've ever seen since I've been coaching,'' Missouri's Gary Pinkel said. Alabama has now held eight consecutive opponents to their season low in yardage.

If Florida goes unbeaten, that means the Gators not only would have blown through Georgia and South Carolina in the East — beginning to resemble General Sherman — but also LSU and then whoever shows up as SEC West champ. Like Alabama. Case closed.

Of the others in the top tier of ratings, none could run the table and be absolutely certain.

3. The dilemma most likely to turn into a mushroom cloud is Oregon or Notre Dame.

The Ducks make such an appealing No. 2, and if they are perfect at the end, they will have beaten Southern California, Stanford and Oregon State down the stretch. And they've been there before. No doubt they figure they've paid their dues.

But the Irish already own three wins against top-20 teams, and a perfect record would mean they've also taken down USC and Oklahoma on the road.

Will the Oregon fowl holler West Coast-bias foul if they are passed over? Would the Vatican launch a protest if an unbeaten Notre Dame was left out? It'll take seven weeks to know.

4. The schedule from here couldn't be better for making a BCS mess, since the top teams have to do so much heavy lifting on the road.

Alabama must play LSU in Death Valley, which Les Miles said famously is "a place where opponents' dreams come to die.''

Oregon and Notre Dame get USC, in Los Angeles.

The Irish must also take on Oklahoma, in Norman.

Kansas State must play West Virginia on Saturday, in Morgantown.

You want the purest chaos, you want no unbeatens and a gaggle of one-loss teams.

5. Tune in next week. Everything could change.

Reviews of the week

Four stars . . .

— Texas Tech. After defusing Geno Smith and holding West Virginia 38 points under its average, the Red Raiders have reminded us that Tommy Tuberville understands how to torment top-five opponents.

— Oregon State. The Pac-12 has been duly warned after backup Cody Vaz, who hadn't taken a snap since 2010 and not started since high school, shredded Brigham Young for 332 passing yards. By the way, the Beavers get Oregon in Corvallis.

— Toledo and Eastern Michigan. What a show. Toledo won 52-47 in a game that included 55 points and eight touchdowns – in the third quarter. Six of the touchdowns came within 3:23 on plays of 47, 89, 58, 65, 70 and 60 yards.

— LSU. That's more like it. "Tonight I realized why LSU was preseason No. 1,'' South Carolina's Steve Spurrier said.

Three stars . . .

— Tulane. The Green Wave had lost 15 in a row and trailed 275 of 300 minutes in five games this season but beat Southern Methodist in the final minute. "Maybe,'' first-year coach Curtis Johnson said, "I'll get 15 minutes of sleep now.''

— New Mexico. All hail, Bob Davie. The Lobos' win at Hawaii was their first outside state borders since 2007. They had three victories combined the past three seasons. In Davie's first year, they already have four.

— Mississippi. The Rebels end a 16-game SEC losing streak, and it counts even if it came against Auburn. "Obviously something is not exactly right there,'' Mississippi coach Hugh Freeze said of the Tigers, who have been outscored 62-3 in the fourth quarter and might actually go 0-for-the-SEC.

Two stars . . .

— Ohio State. Imagine the numbers if Braxton Miller ever got to play against his own defense. The 7-0 record seems a little wobbly after giving up 87 points in two weeks and allowing five Indiana touchdown drives of 66 seconds or less. "Spread offenses right now are really exposing us,'' coach Urban Meyer said. "We have got to get something fixed.''

One star . . .

— West Virginia. No time to mourn the lost weekend in Lubbock with Kansas State coming to town. "We're the offense that everyone's gunning for,'' Geno Smith said. "We get all the media attention and everyone wants to say we're the best offense since sliced bread . ... This is going to sting, but this is my motivation coming in next week.''

— Texas. Did the Longhorns really just give up 111 points in two games and 1,186 rushing yards in five? In the past two Red River Rivalry meetings, have they really scored fewer points against Oklahoma in the games (38) than the Sooners
did in the second quarter alone (51)? "Just unacceptable,'' Mack Brown said. Yeah, we know.

— Michigan State. Spartans are now fifth in their division and flirting with being the flop of the Big Ten, but a lot of pain can be soothed with an unprecedented fifth consecutive win this week against Michigan. "The message to our football team is to look forward and not backwards,'' coach Mark Dantonio said after the overtime loss to Iowa.

Stat of the week

With how Brian Kelly's third season is going, they're all atwitter at Notre Dame about the unmistakable good karma from the fact Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine and Lou Holtz all won the national championship their third seasons.

P.S. The past three coaches — Bob Davie, Tyron Willingham and Charlie Weis — went 14-22 in year 3, but let's not kill the mood in South Bend.

Quotebook

"Some guys came out to play but some guys didn't. It may have been because of injuries. It may have been because they were scared. We will address that in practice.'' — South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney after the LSU loss.

"They can play with anybody in the country, with arguably less talent on the field than everybody in the top 10, if not everybody in the top 15.'' — Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads in an ode to Kansas State and Bill Snyder.