With the College Football Playoff Selection Committee set to unveil its first top 25 on Nov. 3, CBS Sports looked back at how the Bowl Championship Series once decided who played for a title. Using simulated BCS standings from BCSKnowHow on X, it produced an alternate ordering of this season's top teams.
During the BCS era, which ran from 1998 to 2013, each team's score came from three equally weighted parts: the Harris Interactive Poll, the Coaches Poll and a blend of computer rankings from Billingsley, Colley, Massey, Sagarin and Wolfe. The AP poll replaced Harris in the formula in 2004. Before that three-part setup, factors such as schedule strength and quality wins were included, which made the process far more subjective. The four-team playoff arrived in 2014 and expanded to the current 12-team bracket in 2024.
Miami leads the simulated standings with a score of 0.9837, helped by its rout of Pittsburgh and the efficiency of quarterback Darian Mensah and sophomore Malachi Toney. Schedule is the caveat. Wake Forest, ranked No. 21 in this week's Sagarin ratings, is the Hurricanes' best win, and Sagarin places Ohio State and Notre Dame ahead of Miami. CBS Sports still expects Miami to be No. 1 in the first CFP rankings, ahead of a trip to South Bend next month.
Ohio State is second at 0.9576 and is No. 1 in both Massey and Sagarin. The Buckeyes may look different without quarterback Julian Sayin, and freshman Luke Fahey faces a tougher stretch that includes USC and nationally ranked Northwestern. Indiana is third at 0.8408 because the computers like the reigning national champions, even though three of their four Big Ten wins came by one possession. The Hoosiers beat Michigan in overtime despite completing just one pass after halftime, a first for a team coached by Curt Cignetti. They host Minnesota on Saturday.
Georgia is fourth at 0.8364 and is the first of a nation-leading eight SEC teams in the BCS top 17. The Bulldogs' only loss came against Auburn as a three-touchdown favorite, and they own a ranked win at Alabama. Notre Dame is fifth at 0.8043 despite its last-second loss at BYU. CBS Sports believes the Fighting Irish make the bracket at 10-2 but miss out with nine wins, with Miami and SMU on the November schedule.
UCLA sits sixth at 0.7944 as one of three remaining unbeaten teams, though it has lost quarterback Nico Iamaleava for the season. The Bruins beat Wisconsin on Oct. 17 and outlasted Oregon a week earlier, and USC is their only ranked opponent left. Utah is seventh at 0.7730 and earned a first-place vote in the AP poll this week despite the weakest strength of schedule among the top 10. Miami received 59 of the other 69 first-place votes and Ohio State 10.
Kentucky is eighth at 0.7091 and leads the SEC after Week 8, having won six straight since losing to Alabama in the conference opener. The Wildcats have an overtime win over LSU and still face Tennessee, Florida and Missouri. BYU's score fell to 0.6017 after a loss at UCF, though it holds a win over Notre Dame, and its Nov. 7 trip to Utah is the Big 12's biggest remaining game. Alabama ranks 10th among the two-loss SEC teams and still has road and rivalry tests at LSU on Nov. 7 and against Auburn on Nov. 28. Texas is 11th, even though it is the only team with three top-25 wins in the latest AP poll and holds the No. 1 strength of schedule in Massey.
Boise State is the lone Group of Six team in the simulated top 25, with its only loss coming at Oregon in the opener and six wins since. Wisconsin reached the AP poll for the first time this week after beating USC, which does not appear in the computer rankings. USC still has Ohio State, Indiana and unbeaten UCLA ahead, giving it plenty of chances to impress the committee over the next five weeks.
