Yes, that's right - as was predictable but not predicted, Michigan's loss to Ohio State yesterday has left Michigan as #2 in the BCS rankings. Unless the poll voters revolt and start ranking Michigan lower on their ballots even though the team will not play again until its bowl game, the BCS Championship Game may be a rematch of Ohio State vs. Michigan.

This is how it's supposed to work, as covered a full three years ago in The BCS worked, so shut up! Here's the question the BCS rankings should be answering:

Ohio State is the only undefeated team in the country, so they're an obvious #1 in the rankings. Which of several one-loss teams is the best one-loss team and should therefore earn a chance to play for the national championship?

The answer, to the dismay of asshat sportswriters and sportscasters everywhere, is clearly "Michigan." Why? Because their unwritten and illogical rules of polling require that if a team loses, they lose ranking in the polls, even if they believe that's wrong. Michigan finished #3 in both polls behind USC, even though most sportswriters don't believe that USC is a better team than Michigan. But Michigan was #2 and lost, so they have to move down in the polls. The computers have no such illogical components and easily kept Michigan as #2 - five of six computers rank Michigan #2 and the other one ranks USC #2. The numbers are reversed for #3 - five say USC, one says Michigan.

Of course, Kevin Drum will whine about this until his vocal cords hurt, as any true USC fan would (and as he did every other time the computers refused to go along with the media narrative of USC as invincible), but it's exactly how the BCS is supposed to work. And the sportswriters can't stand it. On the FOX NFL show when they announced the results, Jimmy Johnson flat-out admitted that Michigan is the better team, but he doesn't want to see a rematch between Ohio State and Michigan - another team "deserves a chance" to beat Ohio State for the national championship. Terry Bradshaw (I think) said that Michigan shouldn't get to play for the title, apparently because it lost its last game of the season, a similar argument we saw in 2003 that was just as stupid then as it was now.

The sportswriters don't care who is #1 and who is #2. They want the story to change every week and they want #1 to play Anyone Other Than Michigan for the BCS championship, even as they admit the Michigan is the second-best team in the country and, by everything they pretend to claim as truth, should play for the title. But we covered that three years ago - the system has changed some, but the principles are still true. Go read it if you want.

Oh, and by the way, OU is #15 in the BCS right now with one game left to play (two, if OU wins on Saturday and Texas loses on Friday). If they were #14, they'd be BCS-eligible as an at-large selection. At #15, they are not. Does that "loss" to Oregon still look so innocent to you?