It didn't take long for a shakeup at the top of the BCS standings -- just one week.
Alabama, which has won the past two BCS titles, remained No. 1, but Florida State slipped one spot to third and Oregon climbed one spot to second. FSU was .0028 points ahead of Oregon last week; this week, Oregon is .0306 points ahead of FSU.
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Oregon got a nice bump this week because it beat UCLA on Saturday; the Bruins were 12th in last week's BCS standings. FSU beat up on mediocre North Carolina State. The Ducks already had been ahead of the Seminoles in both human polls used by the BCS, and the win over the Bruins gave Oregon an average computer ranking of second. The Ducks' average computer ranking was fourth last week. FSU remains third in both polls, but its average computer ranking dropped from first to third.
One positive for FSU: The Seminoles play No. 7 Miami (Fla.) this week and Oregon is idle; that could mean a changing of the guard at No. 2 again next week. Oregon's next game is Thursday, Nov. 7 at No. 5 Stanford.
Here is the second BCS top 14 of the season, with the school, its spot in the Harris poll, its spot in the coaches' poll and its BCS computer average. We've also included the NCAA's schedule strength, which is not part of the BCS formula.
Ohio State remains fourth this week. The Buckeyes were .0767 points out of third last week, but that margin has narrowed to .0371 this week.
Stanford is the highest of the one-loss teams. Unbeaten Baylor and Miami (Fla.) are sixth and seventh, respectively.
There are eight unbeaten teams; last season at this time, there were 10 -- and just one, Notre Dame, finished unbeaten.
Only once in the history of the BCS has neither No. 1 nor No. 2 in the second set of standings played in the BCS national championship game. Texas and Alabama were first and second, respectively, in the second standings in 2008; Florida beat Oklahoma for the national title that season.
The teams ranked first and second in the second set of standings have gone on to play for the national title four times: 2004 (USC and Oklahoma), 2005 (Texas and USC), 2010 (Auburn and Oregon) and 2011 (LSU and Alabama). Last season, Alabama and Florida were first and second, respectively, in the second set of BCS standings.
No team ranked lower than eighth in the second BCS standings has gone on to play for the national title. Florida was No. 8 in 2008.
No. 16 Fresno State is the highest-ranked non-Big Six (or non-automatic qualifying, if you prefer) conference team this week. A non-Big Six team is guaranteed a BCS spot in two ways. One is if it finishes in the top 12; the other is if it is ranked in the top 16 and its ranking is higher than that of a conference champion with an automatic berth. This week, the Bulldogs (and No. 17 Northern Illinois) are higher than any team from the AAC (Louisville is 19th and UCF 23rd). Under BCS rules, only one non-Big Six team is guaranteed a spot if it meets the criteria. Any others would be at-large candidates. At-large candidates must have at least nine victories and finish in the top 14 in the final BCS standings.
Since the BCS expanded to five games in the 2006 season, seven non-Big Six teams have earned berths (we're not including Notre Dame in that category). There has been at least one non-Big Six school in every one of those seasons except 2011; there were two in 2010.
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The final BCS standings will be released Dec. 8. Teams first and second in the final standings meet in the BCS national championship game Jan. 6 in Pasadena, Calif.
The three components of the BCS standings are the coaches' poll; the Harris poll, voted on by media members and by former players, coaches and administrators; and six computers. Each of the components counts one-third. The best and worst computer rankings are thrown out, and the sum total of the remaining four is divided by 100 (the maximum possible points) to come up with the BCS' computer rankings percentage.
While strength of schedule isn't a separate BCS standings component, as it was from 1998-2003, all six computers have a strength-of-schedule factor in their rankings.
Some other items of interest from the second set of standings:
Alabama is ranked No. 1 by four computers; the Tide is second in the other two. Florida State and Oregon are atop one computer poll apiece.
The top five teams in the BCS standings match the top five in the average computer rankings.
No. 6 Baylor is getting much more respect from the pollsters than from the computers. The Bears are fifth in both polls, but their average computer ranking is 10th.
Fellow Big 12 member Oklahoma State also is getting much more love from the pollsters than from the computers. None of the computers used by the BCS even have the Cowboys in the top 25. But Oklahoma State is 12th in the coaches' poll and 15th in the Harris poll, and it is 18th in the BCS this week. Two-loss Wisconsin is the only other team in the BCS top 25 that is not ranked in the top 25 by any of the BCS computers.
No. 11 Auburn has the opposite problem. The Tigers' average computer ranking is seventh, but they are 11th in both polls.
The SEC leads the way with six teams in the top 25 (all in the top 14), followed by the Big Ten and Big 12 with four each, the ACC and Pac-12 with three each, the AAC with two and the Mid-American, Mountain West and independent ranks with one each. The Big Ten has just one team (Ohio State) in the top 21.
This the 12th week Alabama has been at the top of the BCS standings. That's the fourth-most nationally (behind Oklahoma at 20 and both Ohio State and USC at 15).
New to the standings this week are No. 22 Michigan State, No. 24 Wisconsin and No. 25 Notre Dame. Dropping out were No. 14 Virginia Tech, No. 24 Nebraska and No. 25 Oregon State.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
