# POLL: BCS Final Four Picks, What teams would they be? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 8, 2013, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-bcs-final-four-picks-what-teams-would-they-be/675818 "2013-12-08T13:56:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-bcs-final-four-picks-what-teams-would-they-be/675818/41 "2013-12-09T18:20:23Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > And Notre Dame was unranked in the AP last year, and just #24 in the coaches’ poll. And had Missouri won the SEC game, they likely would be playing in the NCG, having also started the season out of the rankings. Of course this whole conversation would be moot, if the powers that be just did the common-sense rational thing, and held off their first poll until 2 or 3 weeks into the season. I can’t see any point in pre-season rankings. They provide no fact-based insight, and impede the progress of deserving teams. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-bcs-final-four-picks-what-teams-would-they-be/675818/42 "2013-12-09T18:23:51Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > The SEC schools by and large play only creampuff OOC schools and only play them at home. So the big guns of the SEC only have to play a few tough games a year and they play them early, the writers only move them down a notch or two, which they promptly regain by playing Whackahatchee State the next week. Might want to check this [site](http://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/ranking/non-conference-sos-by-other). They ranked each team’s OOC SoS: FSU: 13 Auburn: 65 Alabama: 22 Michigan St: 37 Stanford: 26 Baylor: 48 Ohio St: 84 Missouri: 46 South Carolina: 7 Oregon: 54 Combine this with the fact that the SEC had a better conference winning % OOC then the Big1$ (83% to 77%). You still want to make the OOC SoS argument? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-bcs-final-four-picks-what-teams-would-they-be/675818/43 "2013-12-09T18:28:30Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > I can’t see any point in pre-season rankings. They provide no fact-based insight, and impede the progress of deserving teams. Clearly you’ve never tried to sell magazines in July, and didn’t come with “preseason rankings” as a sure fire way to print money. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-bcs-final-four-picks-what-teams-would-they-be/675818/44 "2013-12-09T18:28:33Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > The SEC schools by and large play only creampuff OOC schools and only play them at home. So the big guns of the SEC only have to play a few tough games a year and they play them early, the writers only move them down a notch or two, which they promptly regain by playing Whackahatchee State the next week. > > Cal is not normally a 1-win team. They’re normally pretty decent. And to play them on the road is a plus for OSU. Just like MSU played ND on the road this year and will play at Oregon next year. Put Auburn in Maryland’s spot in the Big Ten East next year- I guarantee they don’t run the gauntlet of Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State unbeaten. Jesus, Bob, at least look at the schedules before you start spouting off this crap. Here’s a list of notable out of conference games for the SEC teams. Granted they aren’t all against Top 10 teams but if we’re using Cal as a guide… Missouri: @Indiana USC: @UCF, vs Clemson UGA: @Clemson, @GaTech Vandy: vs Wake Forest UF: @Miami, vs Florida State Tennessee: @Oregon Kentucky: vs Louisville Auburn: vs Washington State Alabama: vs Virginia Tech LSU: vs TCU TAMU: vs Rice, vs SMU MissState: vs Oklahoma State Ole Miss: vs Texas Arkansas: at Rutgers ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-bcs-final-four-picks-what-teams-would-they-be/675818/45 "2013-12-09T18:46:29Z")
What a bunch of pushovers! ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-bcs-final-four-picks-what-teams-would-they-be/675818/46 "2013-12-09T18:51:44Z")
Anyhow, we have enough head-to-head matchups to draw some conclusions. The Big 10 is 24-32 in matchups against the SEC in the BCS era. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-bcs-final-four-picks-what-teams-would-they-be/675818/47 "2013-12-09T20:48:19Z")
FSU, Auburn, Alabama, and Michigan State. That last one was a little tough - don’t both MSU and Baylor have a win against an FCS team? - but Stanford’s two losses knock it out of contention. Good thing the “playoff” doesn’t start this year - otherwise there would be calls for an 8-team tournament to prevent the “problem” of having to choose between MSU and Baylor in the future. Then again, even a 16-team tournament could have a similar problems; it is thought that Notre Dame was the “last team in” to the 2010 NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament, but it made it to the championship game. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-bcs-final-four-picks-what-teams-would-they-be/675818/48 "2013-12-09T23:34:35Z")
Because I had gotten into the habit of building arrays from poll results in other similar threads this season, I went ahead and built this one. After 38 Voters: ```auto ========================================================================================================== Florida State Auburn Baylor Michigan State Ohio State Alabama Other teams =============================================================================== armedmonkey 4 Florida State Auburn Michigan State Other teams basset hound 4 Florida State Auburn Michigan State Alabama BobLibDem 4 Florida State Michigan State Ohio State Other teams borschevsky 4 Florida State Auburn Michigan State Alabama Darth Sensitive 4 Florida State Auburn Baylor Michigan State dogbutler 4 Florida State Auburn Ohio State Alabama Duckster 4 Florida State Auburn Michigan State Alabama ElvisL1ves 4 Florida State Auburn Michigan State Other teams Fact of the Matter 4 Florida State Auburn Michigan State Alabama jacobsta811 4 Florida State Auburn Ohio State Alabama Jas09 4 Florida State Auburn Michigan State Alabama jsc1953 4 Florida State Auburn Alabama Other teams Kiros 4 Florida State Auburn Baylor Alabama markdash 4 Florida State Auburn Baylor Michigan State Mean Mr. Mustard 1 Michigan State Munch 4 Florida State Auburn Michigan State Alabama Nauplius 4 Florida State Auburn Baylor Alabama NoClueBoy 4 Florida State Auburn Baylor Michigan State notfrommensa 4 Florida State Auburn Michigan State Alabama Oakminster 4 Florida State Auburn Baylor Alabama OldGuy 4 Florida State Auburn Ohio State Alabama Parthol 4 Florida State Auburn Baylor Alabama picker 4 Florida State Auburn Baylor Michigan State pulykamell 4 Florida State Auburn Baylor Michigan State R. P. McMurphy 4 Florida State Auburn Michigan State Alabama RikWriter 4 Florida State Auburn Michigan State Alabama Snowboarder Bo 4 Florida State Auburn Ohio State Alabama Snupzilla 4 Florida State Auburn Baylor Alabama Spoke 4 Florida State Auburn Baylor Alabama Sterling Archer 4 Florida State Auburn Michigan State Alabama tim-n-va 4 Florida State Auburn Alabama Other teams tonyfop 4 Florida State Auburn Michigan State Alabama USCDiver 4 Florida State Auburn Baylor Alabama Wolverine 4 Florida State Auburn Michigan State Alabama Zakalwe 4 Florida State Auburn Michigan State Alabama zamboniracer 4 Florida State Auburn Baylor Michigan State Zeldar 4 Florida State Auburn Baylor Michigan State ZenBeam 4 Florida State Auburn Michigan State Alabama ======================= ================================================================================ 38 149 37 36 14 25 5 27 5 /149 ========================================================================================================== ``` ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-bcs-final-four-picks-what-teams-would-they-be/675818/49 "2013-12-10T00:46:47Z")
Thanks , Four of the 5 people who picked tOSU did not pick Michigan State. Can someone shed any logic of that phenomena? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-bcs-final-four-picks-what-teams-would-they-be/675818/50 "2013-12-10T02:48:43Z")
I’m a bit confused - I aped the picks of **Sterling Archer** , and a) I’m not listed, b) Sterling Archer’s picks are listed incorrectly (the spreadsheet has Alabama picked, but SA/myself went for Baylor) ---
**Author:** ![Carmady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f04885/32.png) [@Carmady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carmady)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-bcs-final-four-picks-what-teams-would-they-be/675818/51 "2013-12-10T03:25:09Z")
FSU Auburn Michigan State Baylor If it’s close, stick with major conference winners with 1 or fewer losses. Stanford (2 losses, loss to Utah) isn’t so far ahead to overlook an extra loss. Alabama isn’t either. Keep in mind that Alabama didn’t play any of the top 3 teams in the SEC East: Missouri, South Carolina, or Georgia (actually they didn’t play anyone in the top 5 of the SEC East). Their schedule isn’t good enough to overcome losing their division and conference. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-bcs-final-four-picks-what-teams-would-they-be/675818/52 "2013-12-10T05:26:48Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > I’m a bit confused - I aped the picks of **Sterling Archer** , and > > a) I’m not listed, > b) Sterling Archer’s picks are listed incorrectly (the spreadsheet has Alabama picked, but SA/myself went for Baylor) The array was manually constructed by me from the poll results after 38 voters. That now stands at 41. I must assume you voted within the last three. I will update the array later, or anyone else can at their own convenience. As this thread was started by **notfrommensa** and not by me, I was just contributing to the thread, not trying to manage its outcome. I apologize to anyone voting after the 38th voter if they were omitted. You can click on any number in the poll’s output and see things for yourself. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-bcs-final-four-picks-what-teams-would-they-be/675818/53 "2013-12-10T14:09:57Z")
There’s no way Baylor should be in this. They got the crap kicked out of them in their biggest game of the year. It’s one thing to lose. It’s quite another to be down 35-3 heading into the 4th. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-bcs-final-four-picks-what-teams-would-they-be/675818.md?page=2)