USC is No. 1 (and 16) by one computer

USC, which we vaguely recall losing a football game at unranked Oregon State not too long ago, is No. 1 this week in Jeff Sagarin's USA Today ratings.

But don't get too excited and/or ticked off . . . USC is also No. 16 in Sagarin.

Just as Northwestern is No. 28 . . . and, um, No. 2.

Florida is No. 7 . . . and a see-you-later Gators No. 46.

And you wonder why people pull their hair out trying to dissect the sausage-making business known as the Bowl Championship Series rankings.

With less than two weeks before the Oct. 19 release of the first BCS standings, things in the boiler room are as clear as University of Mississippi mud.

Sagarin is a BCS Founding Father. His rankings, along with systems from the New York Times and Seattle Times, were used in the first BCS season of 1998.

Indexes have come and gone, and there are presently six used in the formula that melds two polls and a computer component to select the top two teams in college football.

Here's Sagarin's deal: A few years ago, conference commissioners required that computer operators remove margin of victory from their formulas as a condition of remaining in the BCS. The commissioners thought removing MOV would reduce the ugly business of coaches having to run up scores to enhance their BCS chances.

Now, they only have to run up scores to impress the pollsters.

Some ratings systems, such as Scripps-Howard, pulled out rather than tweak their formulas.

Sagarin wanted to stay in, so now he publishes two sets of rankings. One includes margin of victory, and the second set doesn't.

It is the second set, which the Sagarin lists call "ELO-CHESS," that are used in the BCS standings.

This early in the year, it makes for some huge disparities in Sagarin's indexes.

Some are laugh-out-loud huge.

But it explains why USC can be No. 1 and No. 16.

Crushing victories against Virginia, Ohio State and Oregon, by the combined score of 131-20, were apparently enough to overcome that repugnant loss at Oregon State.

Take away margin of victory, though, and USC slides all the way to a not-so-sweet 16. That wouldn't even make USC eligible for a BCS at-large berth.

Among the national title contenders, Florida's Sagarin rating gap is a whopping 39 spots.

Sorry Gators but, to the BCS system, that 56-10 win over Hawaii was overkill.

There's never a dull moment in the BCS.

This week, USC and Oklahoma are Sagarin's two top teams.

So are Alabama and Northwestern.

Y'all chew on that.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com