Frogs move up in BCS poll
By JOSH DUBOW
Associated Press

TCU, college football’s only other undefeated team besides Oklahoma, moved up three spots to No. 9 in this week’s Bowl Championship Series standings, released Monday.

The Horned Frogs will need to be in the top 12 to be eligible for one of the lucrative BCS games and the top six to guarantee a bid but are hurt by having the 98th toughest schedule out of 117 teams. There has been pressure from schools outside the big six conferences to improve access to the BCS bowls — Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose.

Miami’s first regular season loss in more than three years cleared a path for Southern California to get to the Sugar Bowl.

USC is in second place in the BCS, trailing only unanimous No. 1 Oklahoma.

“I suspect that this ranking shows the respect people have for our program and the way we’re playing,” Trojans coach Pete Carroll said. “We hope to continue to play like we have. If we do, good things will happen.”

The Sooners (9-0), the only undefeated team from a major conference, got every first-place vote in the polls and was the top pick by all seven computers used in the BCS standings.

The formula uses the AP media and USA Today/ESPN coaches’ polls, seven computer rankings, strength of schedule, losses and a bonus-point system for quality wins.

The Sooners have a 1.0 for poll average, 1.0 for computer-rank average, 0.24 for strength of schedule and zero for losses for a 2.24 total. USC was second with 7.02 points.

Miami fell two spots to No. 4 with 10.26 points following a 31-7 loss to Virginia Tech that snapped a 39-game regular-season winning streak. Florida State remained in third place with 9.52.

Following Miami are the other three major one-loss teams: Ohio State (11.47), Virginia Tech (12.47) and LSU (14.92).

Despite falling to sixth in the AP poll and seventh in the coaches’ poll, Miami remained in second place among the computers with a 2.83 average.