Is there any body in American higher education more unaccountable and capricious with other people's lives and millions of dollars than the BCS? Why, sure! This week brings a new round of made-up educational rankings from the otherwise essentially defunct U.S. News. (Did you know that No. 22 Boston University Law School is empirically better than No. 23 Indiana University-Bloomington Law School? It's a fact.)
So while we wait for the BCS to take its turn, and in celebration of the NCAA's commitment to the ideal of the scholar-athlete, here's your current AP football poll, re-ranked to incorporate each school's U.S. News rating. Because the U.S. News numbers go a lot higher/lower than 25—hello down there, No. 181 University of South Florida—we divided the U.S. News rank by 10 before adding the two numbers together.
At the top, unavoidably, is Stanford (No. 6 AP, No. 5 U.S. News). But don't abandon hope, SEC! LSU may be No. 128 as a educational institution, but its football strength keeps it in the top 10. Conversely, Texas' relatively lackluster football performance this year drags down its respectable No. 45 U.S. News ranking. This list is all about balance—sound (subjective rankings of) minds in sound (subjective rankings of) bodies.
The results:
1. Stanford 6.5 (AP 6, U.S. News 5)
2. Alabama 9.5 (AP 2, U.S. News 75)
3. Oklahoma 11.1 (AP 1, U.S. News 101)
4. Wisconsin 11.2 (AP 7, U.S. News 42)
5. Texas A&M 14.8 (AP 9, U.S. News 58)
6. Florida State 15.1 (AP 5, U.S. News 101)
7. LSU 15.8 (AP 3, U.S. News 128)
8. Virginia Tech 20.1 (AP 13, U.S. News 71)
9. South Carolina 21.1 (AP 10, U.S. News 111)
9. Nebraska 21.1 (AP 11, U.S. News 101)
11. Oklahoma State 21.2 (AP 8, U.S. News 132)
12. Florida 21.8 (AP 16, U.S. News 58)
13. Oregon 22.1 (AP 12, U.S. News 101)
13. Michigan State 22.1 (AP 15, U.S. News 71)
15. Ohio State 22.5 (AP 17, U.S. News 55)
16. Baylor 26.5 (AP 19, U.S. News 75)
17. Arkansas 27.2 (AP 14, U.S. News 132)
18. Texas 27.5 (AP 23, U.S. News 45)
19. Auburn 29.2 (AP 21, U.S. News 82)
20. Boise State 30.4 (AP 4, U.S. News 67* [in Regional Universities-West])
21. TCU 32.7 (AP 23, U.S. News 97)
22. West Virginia 34.4 (AP 18, U.S. News 164)
23. Arizona State 35.2 (AP 22, U.S. News 132)
24. South Florida 38.1 (AP 20, U.S. News 181)
25. Mississippi State 40.7 (AP 25, U.S. News 157)
* Note on methodology: Boise State was ranked on the "Regional Universities-West" list, rather than "National Universities." Because U.S. News publishes four separate regional lists, we translated Boise State's numbers onto the national scale by multiplying the number of Western schools ahead of it—66—by four.