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BCS Rankings Week 9: Northern Illinois Ranked No. 18 In First BCS Rankings of 2013

Northern Illinois has a good shot of running the table and bursting the BCS' bubble after the initial BCS Rankings of the 2013 season were released.

By Bryan M. Vance

The first BCS Rankings of the 2013 season were released Sunday night on ESPN, and the Northern Illinois Huskies (7-0, 3-0 MAC) came in at No. 18.

NIU, ranked No. 21, No. 22 and No. 23 in the Harris, Coaches and AP polls respectively, came in significantly higher in the BCS Rankings.

The Huskies are ranked two spots above Louisville, the highest ranked member of the American Athletic Conference, but are one spot below Fresno State, which also has a shot of busting the BCS. The Huskies need to climb to at least No. 16 in the BCS Rankings, with Louisville, or whoever the champion of the AAC winds up being, finishing below them in order to earn an at large bid to a BCS bowl this year; or if the Huskies can climb six spots between now and the end of the season to finish No. 12 or higher it won't matter where the AAC champion finishes.

The gap between Fresno State and NIU is rather narrow. The Huskies could leap frog the Bulldogs with wins against Ball State (7-1) and Toledo (4-3) in November, but ultimately will need to win with style to move up and hope that Fresno State slips up somewhere to pull that off.

Last year Northern Illinois didn't crack the BCS rankings until Week 14, breaking in at No. 21 before eventually bumping up to No. 15 a week later after beating Kent State in the MAC Championship game.

Here's a full breakdown of the BCS Rankings:

BCS Harris Poll USA Today Computer Rankings
RK TEAM AVG PVS RK PTS % RK PTS % AVG A&H RB CM KM JS PW %
1 Alabama .9841 2 1 2615 .9962 1 1544 .9961 2 2 1 3 3 2 1 .960
2 Florida State .9348 12 3 2401 .9147 3 1410 .9097 1 1 5 2 1 1 2 .980
3 Oregon .9320 4 2 2520 .9600 2 1482 .9561 4 4 2 4 4 4 4 .880
4 Ohio State .8553 NR 4 2321 .8842 4 1382 .8916 5 5 3 5 8 8 7 .790
5 Missouri .8219 NR 6 2026 .7718 7 1184 .7639 3 3 6 1 2 3 3 .930
6 Stanford .7414 6 8 1952 .7436 8 1117 .7206 6 6 4 6 6 15 10 .760
7 Miami (FL) .7200 NR 7 2008 .7650 6 1186 .7652 10 8 21 12 9 12 8 .630
8 Baylor .7120 NR 5 2038 .7764 5 1255 .8097 12 9 11 11 15 14 13 .550
9 Clemson .6249 14 10 1616 .6156 10 913 .5890 9 10 7 8 10 13 9 .670
10 Texas Tech .6220 NR 9 1662 .6331 9 981 .6329 11 11 14 10 12 10 11 .600
11 Auburn .5058 NR 15 1105 .4210 17 537 .3465 7 7 17 7 5 9 6 .750
12 UCLA .4807 17 11 1323 .5040 11 710 .4581 14 15 16 19 13 11 12 .480
13 LSU .4552 8 12 1212 .4617 13 688 .4439 15 14 9 17 11 19 16 .460
14 Virginia Tech .4408 NR 19 841 .3204 19 499 .3219 8 13 NR 9 7 7 5 .680
15 Oklahoma .4204 11 14 1110 .4229 12 695 .4484 16 12 8 15 19 20 19 .390
16 Texas A&M .3666 9 13 1177 .4484 15 622 .4013 18 22 18 22 16 22 17 .250
17 Fresno State .3379 NR 18 920 .3505 18 532 .3432 17 16 NR 14 NR 16 14 .320
18 Northern Illinois .3032 15 21 518 .1973 22 298 .1923 13 19 10 13 14 5 15 .520
19 Oklahoma State .2687 NR 17 951 .3623 13 688 .4439 28 25 NR NR NR NR NR .000
20 Louisville .2556 21 16 1046 .3985 16 571 .3684 28 NR 15 NR NR NR NR .000
21 South Carolina .2161 10 20 673 .2564 20 468 .3019 26 24 19 NR 22 NR 23 .090
22 Michigan .1637 18 22 415 .1581 23 268 .1729 21 17 20 16 NR NR 25 .160
23 UCF .1394 NR 25 238 .0907 25 151 .0974 19 23 13 23 NR 17 18 .230
24 Nebraska .1354 16 23 414 .1577 21 385 .2484 28 NR NR NR NR NR NR .000
25 Oregon State .1042 13 NR 168 .0640 NR 91 .0587 20 NR 22 24 18 6 21 .190

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With the Huskies starting out rather high in the initial BCS Rankings, do you like their odds of crashing the BCS for a second straight year?

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