Slight Changes In HBCU Power Rankings
By Donal Ware
HBCU Columnist
College Sports Journal
PHILADELPHIA, PA. — The top four teams remained the same in this week’s Boxtorow/BCSP HBCU football power rankings.
Tennessee State, Bethune-Cookman, Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Winston-Salem State – all winners last week – kept the Nos. 1–4 positions.
As they did in the respective BCPS and Boxtorow polls, the Alabama State Hornets moved up significantly in the “BCF-BCS”, four spots from a week ago to No. 5 after their 31-13 victory over Alabama A&M in the Magic City Classic.
The Bulldogs in turn moved down one spot in the rankings to No. 7.
North Carolina Central also moved down one spot to No. 7 after its 42-17 loss to Bethune-Cookman.
Howard, who was No. 7 last week, dropped out of the poll after falling 41-23 to South Carolina State. The Bison falling out made room for Delaware State who debuts this week at No. 8.
Key matchups Saturday could shake up the poll a bit as No. 6 North Carolina Central hosts No. 8 Delaware State and No. 9 Miles hosts No. 10 Tuskegee in an SIAC Western Division matchup that will determine who represents the West in next week’s SIAC championship game.
Much like the BCS, Boxtorow/BCSP HBCU football power rankings uses a pair of major HBCU weekly polls – the Black College Sports Page Top Ten and the Boxtorow HBCU Football Top 10 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.
Boxtorow/BCSP HBCU Football Power Rankings for Week of 10/22/12
Rank School Average CPU Average BCPS Boxtorow
1. Tennessee State 2.00 1.00 3 2
2. Bethune-Cookman 2.33 2.00 2 3
3. Arkansas-Pine Bluff 4.33 3.00 6 4
4. Winston-Salem State 5.75 15.25 1 1
5. Alabama State 6.71 7.13 7 6
6. North Carolina Central 7.42 4.25 9 9
7. Alabama A&M 7.96 5.88 10 8
8 Delaware State 8.17 5.50 8 11
9. Miles 10.29 21.88 4 5
10. Tuskegee 10.33 19.00 5 7
Editor's Note: Donal Ware is one of the leading voices in Historically Black College and University football. His Boxtorow.com website, popular articles for such publications as Jet magazine and regular radio shows for such networks as Sirius/XM have given him a high profile in the college and professional sports world. You can read more of his material at Boxtorow.com
