When the initial Bowl Championship Series standings came out on Oct. 21, and Miami — defending national champion and ranked No. 1 — was second, Hurricanes fans grumbled.
If they were mad then, all-out hollerin’ might be heard Monday, when the next BCS standings come out.
Even with a decisive victory against Rutgers on Saturday, the Hurricanes, who hold a 29-game win streak, are poised to slide below Notre Dame into third. The reason: The Scarlet Knights’ 1-7 record will hurt the Hurricanes’ strength of schedule rating.
Last week, Virginia Tech’s schedule-strength rating rose from 1.00 to 1.83 in beating Temple (3-5). Anything close to that type of increase for Miami would erase its current 0.3 point lead over the Fighting Irish.
Miami has to worry about the relatively small influence of schedule strength because of the way the BCS rankings are formulated.
Despite being No. 1 in both major polls, Miami holds a computer average of 4.33 — fifth-best in the nation.
The value of the computer average has come into question recently, because of a few nonsensical results in the second edition of the rankings. For example, Notre Dame’s average dropped a half a point after the Irish beat Florida State, and Oklahoma’s rose 0.33, even though the Sooners had a bye.
Colorado, ranked 12th, and Kansas State, 15th, made their first appearances in the BCS rankings this week. Florida State and Oregon fell out of the standings after losses.
crimson crime: An ex-high school coach will plead guilty to charges stemming from a two-year-old recruiting scandal, his lawyer said.
Lynn Lang, former coach at Trezevant High School in Memphis, Tenn., is charged with soliciting and accepting payoffs to influence the decision of Albert Means, his top player, to go to Alabama in 2000. The Crimson Tide currently are on probation in connection with this and other rules infractions.
A federal grand jury has already indicted Lang on conspiracy, extortion and bribery charges.
Lang’s indictment also accuses him of seeking payoffs from several other top schools: Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida State, Michigan State and Memphis.
Lang’s assistant coach, Milton Kirk, brought the accusation against his former boss. Kirk accused Lang of seeking $200,000 to influence Means’ decision.
Court records say Lang made cash deposits totaling $50,000 around the time of the alleged payoffs.
Authorities said Means, who played for Memphis last season but is academically ineligible this year, knew nothing about the alleged exchange.
sack attack: Arizona State defensive end Terrell Suggs tied the single-season NCAA record for sacks in the Sun Devils’ 27-16 win over Washington on Saturday.
The junior has four more regular season games plus a potential bowl appearance to increase his total.
Suggs, a converted running back, wrapped up Washington quarterback Cody Pickett 4 1/2 times Saturday to bring his season total to 17 1/2, tying him with the mark set by Syracuse’s Dwight Freeney in 2001.
Nicknamed “T-Rex,” Suggs also has his sights set on the single-season record for tackles for a loss. His current tally of 24 is only 6 1/2 behind the 2001 record set by Kenny Philpot of Eastern Michigan.
“You’ve got to double team him every chance you get,” Washington head coach Mike Price said. “If you triple team him, that third guy that hits him is usually the quarterback.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
