Week 11 BCS-Style Rankings of the 2016 College Football Playoff Field

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Week 11 upsets will likely scramble the College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday. Where would the field of contenders rank in the old BCS formula?

When five of the top ten teams in the College Football Playoff rankings fell throughout the Week 11 slate of games, it left many to wonder how it would affect the sport’s hierarchy deep into the final month of the regular season. After a decade and a half under the BCS system, we are now in the third year of letting those decisions be made by a panel of deliberators.

How different might this race for one of the four semifinal spots look if were were still operating under the BCS formula? The Harris Interactive Poll no longer operates, having been created for the sole purpose of providing a second human counterbalance to the Coaches Poll and the computer rankings after the AP dropped out of the system. Instead, for the purposes of this exercise we will turn back to the AP poll.

Keeping that in mind, what might the field of contenders look like if they were playing for the crystal pigskin of the BCS instead of the new CFP trophy? Here is how teams would be ranked in the old BCS system after 11 weeks of play in the 2016 season:

Three Quick Takeaways

1. Though three of the top four teams in the CFP rankings fell on Saturday in quick succession, only one would drop out of the top four under the BCS formula. Though Washington was the only team to play a ranked opponent, the Huskies fell to seventh in both human polls and are likely to send up somewhere around there in tomorrow’s CFP rankings release. Conversely, the BCS rankings wouldn’t drop Michigan even one spot, with rival Ohio State jumping above them and ACC leader Clemson falling right below them.

2. Western Michigan, the only other undefeated team in the FBS besides Alabama, would be in good position to earn an invite into a BCS-affiliated game with three weeks to go in the regular season. The Broncos are now 10-0 and on pace to win their first WAC title in decades. Under the old system, a Group of Five team had to finish in the top 12 to guarantee itself a spot in a major bowl game.

3. In the last BCS rankings in 2013 right before the system was scrapped for the College Football Playoff, there were four SEC teams in the top 10. The year before that, fully half of the top 10 was populated by SEC schools. After years of dominating the sport as the clear-cut best conference in the country, the Southeastern Conference is facing an identity crisis in 2016. Sure, Alabama still sits in its usual perch atop the rankings. But the next best team in a BCS-style projection is #17 Auburn, demonstrating the gulf in talent in the league.