Boxtorow/BCSP HBCU Football Power Rankings

Bethune-Cookman ends season on top of HBCU Football power rankings
Winston-Salem State ranked No. 1 according to one computer

Boxtorow.com

With Alabama defeating Notre Dame in the BCS national championship game last week, the college football season came to an end and the final computer polls were released.

With that Bethune-Cookman ends the season No. 1 in the Boxtorow/BCSP HBCU football power rankings.

The Wildcats had been No. 1 the previous three weeks the poll had been released.

Tennessee State finished No. 1 in three of the four computer polls and No. 2 and No. 5 respectively in the BCSP and Boxtorow polls, finishing No. 2 in the power rankings with an average of 2.75, .17 behind Bethune-Cookman who they defeated 21-14 in Daytona Beach on September 22.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff, who won its first outright SWAC championship on December 8 defeating Jackson State 24-21 in overtime, finished No. 3

Winston-Salem State, who was voted HBCU national champions and finished No. 1 in both the BCSP and Boxtorow polls, finished No. 4 in the power rankings.  The Rams whose only loss of the season was in the Division II national championship game against Valdosta State, ranked No. 1 and No. 2 according to two computers.

Jackson State and Howard finished No. 5 and No.6 in the power rankings as both also finished second in the SWAC and MEAC, respectively.

North Carolina A&T (8.72 average) finished No. 7, just edging out No. 8 Alabama State (8.83 average).  SIAC champion Tuskegee finished No. 9 while Alabama A&M, who ended the season losing four of their last five including a 51-7 loss to Auburn, rounded out the top 10.

Much like the BCS, Boxtorow/BCSP HBCU football power rankings uses a pair of major HBCU weekly polls – the Black College Sports Page and the
Boxtorow HBCU Football media poll – and four computer polls. Two of the computer polls, Massey Ratings and Peter Wolfe Ratings, are used in the actual BCS rankings.

The formula 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” ranking and ultimately the top 10 rankings. The human polls count 67 percent towards the outcome and the computer polls count 33 percent.