New York ? Ohio State has been here before, leading the Bowl Championship Series standings. For second-place South Florida, it’s another breakthrough in a season full of them.
The Buckeyes and Bulls held the first two spots in the first BCS standings on the season released Sunday. The top two teams in the final standings released Dec. 2 will play in the national title game in New Orleans on Jan. 7.
The Buckeyes (7-0) can thank the poll voters for making them No. 1. Ohio State is No. 1 in both the coaches’ poll and the Harris poll, which are two of the three components the BCS uses in its standings formula. Ohio State was also the new No. 1 team in the AP Top 25.
“It’s always nice to be in the top position, but we know it doesn’t mean anything now in week 8,” Ohio State tackle Kirk Barton said. “We’ll see at the end of November how things stand.”
The defending Big Ten champions know all too well that leading the BCS standings doesn’t guarantee a national title. The Buckeyes were first in the BCS standings all last season, but they lost the national title game, 41-14, to Florida.
The final third of a team’s BCS grade comes from a compilation of six computer rankings, and that’s where the Bulls (6-0) scored big. The computers have USF as the top team in the country. The Bulls are third behind Boston College in the coaches’ and Harris polls, though they are No. 2 in the AP poll by a comfortable margin over BC.
The Bulls, out of the Big East, had never been ranked before this season and the school only started playing football 11 years ago. Now coach Jim Leavitt’s team is in the thick of the national title race.
