Simulated BCS rankings show how this year’s poll would shake out

Entering the second half of the SEC season, there is beginning to be some separation among the contenders in college football, and there will certainly be more this week with Florida and Georgia meeting in Jacksonville, Florida, and Clemson and Notre Dame meeting in South Bend, Indiana.

But how would the top contenders for the College Football Playoff look if this was still the BCS era?

Those rankings were used from 1998-2013 to decide which two teams would play in the national championship game. The rankings were created by combining the AP, Coaches and a computer poll (which was an average of 6 different computer polls) together to formulate the BCS rankings. In later years the AP poll was replaced by the Harris Poll because of conflicts between the BCS and the AP, however in many cases the Harris Poll was virtually a reflection of the AP Poll anyway.

At this point in the season, it is largely similar to what other major polls have listed, with Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame and Georgia in the top five in one order or another. Texas A&M fans, however, should be quick to point out that the Aggies are ranked at No. 9, two spots lower than a team they beat, Florida, which is the second-highest one-loss team behind Georgia at No. 7.

Auburn at No. 21 is the only other SEC team in the top 25.

Here’s a look at the rankings:

H/T Reddit CFB

Keith Farner

A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.