Stanford ranked No. 6 in first BCS rankings

Oct. 20, 2013, 10:29 p.m.

Fresh off a bounce-back win against then-No. 9 UCLA Saturday afternoon, Stanford football earned the No. 6 spot in the first BCS rankings released Sunday night.

The top two teams in the BCS rankings at the end of the season will play in the BCS National Championship Game. Any team ranked in the top 14 is eligible for an at-large bid into another BCS bowl.

Kodi Whitfield (9)
Kodi Whitfield (middle) celebrates with his teammates after an eye-popping grab in the third-quarter against UCLA Saturday. The win propelled the Card to an initial BCS ranking of sixth. (MIKE KHEIR/The Stanford Daily)

The Cardinal came in at No. 8 in all three major human polls: the Harris Poll, USA Today Coaches Poll and the AP Poll. Stanford was the highest ranked one-loss team but was behind every undefeated team from an AQ-conference besides No. 9 Texas Tech.

The computer rankings, however, propelled the Cardinal past No. 7 Miami and No. 8 Baylor for the sixth spot in the BCS. Stanford had an average ranking of sixth in the computer polls, four higher than Miami and six higher than Baylor.

The Pac-12 has four teams ranked in the BCS top 25: Oregon, Stanford, UCLA and Oregon State.

Oregon leads the way at No. 3, just a hair behind Florida State, which used a No. 1 computer ranking to move past the Ducks. UCLA dropped only two spots in the human polls after the loss to Stanford and came in at No. 12 in the BCS.

Oregon State is the surprising team to squeak into the rankings at No. 25. The Beavers are unranked in both human polls but are ranked No. 20 by the computers. Oregon State hosts Stanford Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.

Sam Fisher is the managing editor of sports for The Stanford Daily's Vol. 244. Sam also does play-by-play for KZSU's coverage of Stanford football, Stanford baseball and Stanford women's basketball. In 2013, Sam co-authored "Rags to Roses: The Rise of Stanford Football," with Joseph Beyda and George Chen.

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