USC Starts Off at Head of Class

USC is No. 1 in the first bowl championship series rankings and didn’t even need a Reggie Bush push to get over the top.

An inch or two either way at South Bend, Ind., last weekend would have changed the BCS ballgame before it officially started, but Monday’s first release should have come as relief for USC and Texas, which overcame some anxious moments to check in first and second.

USC debuted with a BCS average of .9923, putting the Trojans comfortably ahead of Texas (.9591), followed by Virginia Tech (.9067), Georgia (.8933) and Alabama (.8220).

The top two teams in the final standings on Dec. 4 will play for the BCS national title in the Rose Bowl Jan. 4.

For what it’s worth, in the seven-year history of the BCS the top two teams in the first standings have never played for the title.

USC ranks first in the two human components used in the formula, the Harris Interactive and USA Today coaches’ polls, and is No. 1 in the computer index average.

The Trojans were first in four computers and second in two.

UCLA, which is off to a 6-0 start after beginning the season unranked, is No. 9 in the BCS, keeping slim national title hopes alive as the Bruins anticipate a possible Dec. 3 showdown against crosstown rival USC.

Two-loss Notre Dame didn’t fall far in the polls after Saturday’s 34-31 loss to USC, but the Irish were No. 16 in the first BCS standings because of the worst computer ranking in the top 25. Two computers, Billingsley and Massey, did not have Notre Dame in their top 25 -- the Irish were 26th in both indexes.

Texas was ranked third behind USC and Virginia Tech in a dry-run BCS poll conducted after last weekend’s games, but the Longhorns strengthened their position with a quality win over No. 24 Colorado while Virginia Tech was idle.

Texas also picked up four first-place votes on USC in this week’s Harris poll and pulled to within 48 points of the Trojans in the USA Today coaches’ poll.

Monday marked the eighth unveiling of the controversial BCS standings, which have been tweaked six times since they were introduced in 1998. Manufactured specifically for a sport that refuses to embrace a playoff, the rankings were designed to match two teams in a season-ending championship game.

Before 1998, top schools many times were not paired because they were bound by prior bowl arrangements. In 1997, for example, No. 1 Michigan could not play No. 2 Nebraska because Michigan was obligated to play Washington State in the Rose Bowl.

This year’s BCS standings are different in two respects: the Harris poll replaces Associated Press, which pulled its poll out of the formula. Also for the first time, the final vote of coaches will be made public.

The 114-person Harris poll has experienced growing pains. Early on it replaced several panelists and this week became a 113-person poll when it released one voter for “not participating fully and honoring the level of commitment required.”

Harris also was asked by BCS commissioners last week to remove from its formula a statistical procedure known as “trimming,” in which Harris could alter some rankings up or down if they were out of line with the statistical norm.

This caused some confusion early when one Harris poll had six more points than possible points available.

“Even though the practice made sense from a statistical standpoint and mathematical standpoint, there just wasn’t a comfort level with points being taken away or added to the system,” BCS spokesman Bob Burda said Monday.