The HBCU sports season is officially on, and as host of the national sports talk radio show, From the Press Box to Press Row, I cover all the action on the games that showcase our Historically Black Colleges and Universities. HBCU GameTime will provide a weekly rundown on what’s happening on the field, and occasionally other sports-related topics. Let’s play!

Donal Ware, HBCU GameTime

Ever wonder what an HBCU football BCS (Bowl Champsionship Series) would look like?  We have put one together using two “human” polls – the Black College Sports Page rankings and the Boxtorow media poll – and four computer polls. Two of the computer polls, Massey Ratings and Peter Wolfe Ratings, are used in the actual BCS rankings

South Carolina State has had a solid season and is arguably the second best team in football.  Week two of the “BCF-BCS” bared that out as the Bulldogs rose to No. 2, leapfrogging Jackson State who was idle last week.  With Tennessee State’s 44-0 loss to Eastern Kentucky, SCSU moved up a spot in the BCSP poll and two spots in the Boxtorow poll, in addition to having a higher ranking than JSU amongst the four computer polls.

Meanwhile, Bethune-Cookman easily remains No. 1 while Tennessee State fell from No. 2 to No. 4.

Alabama State’s loss to Kentucky didn’t hurt the Hornets as they remained at No. 6.

The computer polls questioned Alcorn State’s strength of schedule, but because the Braves continued to win they remained steady in both the BCSP and Boxtorow polls.  With their 19-18 loss to Alabama A&M the Braves dropped two spots to No. 9, which allowed Tuskegee to move up two spots to No. 7 this week.  Tuskegee defeated AAMU to open the season.

Virginia State, who clinched the CIAA Northern Division crown with a 28-0 victory over Chowan, moved into the poll tied at No. 10 with Prairie View A&M.

The formula for the BCF-BCS is such that the mean of the rankings of each school in the computer poll is added with the two “human” polls and divided by 3 to get the “BCF-BCS” top 10 power rankings.  The human polls count 67 percent towards the outcome and the computer polls count 33 percent.

BCF-BCS Rankings
November 6, 2013

Rank    School                          Average CPU Average   BCPS   Boxtorow

1.         Bethune-Cookman       1.00     1.00                     1          1

2.         South Carolina State   3.42     3.25                     4          3

3.         Jackson State                3.58     3.75                     3          4

4.         Tennessee State            4.33     2.00                    6          5

5.         Winston-Salem State   5.89     13.67                 2          2

6.         Alabama State               6.58     5.75                    8          6

7.         Tuskegee                         9.56     16.67                 5          7

8.         Southern                       10.16   10.50                 10        10

9.         Alcorn State                 10.08   12.25                 9          9

T-10    Prairie View A&M       11.00   10.00              12        11

T-10    Virginia State                11.00   18.00               7          8

You can follow Donal Ware on Twitter @dware1 and @boxtorow

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