UH and the BCS, Together Again

Not really, but this Saturday's UH-Cincinnati game might have an effect on the BCS standings. Gregory Cox of The Football Expert says the cartel is worried:

Cincinnati (10-2) @ Hawaii (7-5): The BCS organizers are sweating this game believe me. How would it look if the WAC runner-up beats the Big East champion? Let me tell you – bad. Sentiment right now is that the MWC is better than the WAC as evidenced by the BCS standings and barring a computer meltdown Utah will be ranked higher for the automatic bid over Boise State. More than that, Ohio State is likely to get the at-large bid over Boise State as well. What if Hawaii wins this game though? Then things might get interesting.

Stewart Mandel of SI.com takes a look at how UH might be able to help Florida.

If Cincinnati loses at Hawaii on Saturday, does that affect computer rankings enough to put Oklahoma (which beat the Bearcats) out of the national championship game?
-- Jason, Ankeny, Iowa

Funny you should mention that ...

Remember that Florida co-worker I mentioned? Tuesday morning, he showed me an interesting discovery made by some of his paranoid cohorts. On the Web site for the Colley Matrix (one of the six BCS computer ratings), he has a tool where you can "play god" -- i.e., plug in future results and see what happens. So he plugged in Florida beating Alabama, Oklahoma beating Missouri and USC beating UCLA, and here's what came out:

1. OKLAHOMA (12-1) 0.94144

2. TEXAS (11-1) 0.94002

3. FLORIDA (12-1) 0.93732

Then, he threw in Hawaii beating Cincinnati. Mind you, not only did Oklahoma beat Cincinnati, but Florida beat Hawaii. The envelope, please:

1. FLORIDA (12-1) 0.94088

2. TEXAS (11-1) 0.93956

3. OKLAHOMA (12-1) 0.93810

Yep -- that one game caused Oklahoma and Florida to swap spots. You've gotta love the Warriors -- they might not play in the BCS this year, but they can still make their presence felt.

Can't get rid of us!