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Apparently, not playing seems to give the Bruins more help in the polls than they get from playing or, at least, as much help as beating Texas gave them. After beating Virginia, they dropped in the polls. After beating Memphis, they dropped again. Last week, after beating Texas, they moved up in the Coaches' Poll but stayed put in the AP Poll.
It reminds me of the conclusion the computer reached at the end of the movie WarGames: "The only winning move is not to play."
With yesterday off, the Bruins stayed put at #10 in the Coaches' Poll. Meanwhile, the coaches rewarded Michigan State's blowout of that Midwestern powerhouse Eastern Michigan by giving them enough votes to jump us and move to #9.
The team did move up one spot in the AP Poll to #11.
Well, Thursday night, the team will have an opportunity to finally move up as we play Arizona State which is ranked #12 in the Coaches Poll and #15 in the AP Poll.
Here are both polls with first-place votes in parentheses:
AP | Points | LW | Coaches | Points | LW | |
1 | Florida State (34) | 1439 | 1 | Florida State (36) | 1494 | 1 |
2 | Oregon (12) | 1400 | 2 | Alabama (11) | 1466 | 2 |
3 | Alabama (6) | 1377 | 3 | Oklahoma (12) | 1425 | 4 |
4 | Oklahoma (4) | 1343 | 4 | Oregon (3) | 1403 | 3 |
5 | Auburn | 1268 | 5 | Auburn | 1316 | 5 |
6 | Texas A&M (4) | 1232 | 6 | Baylor | 1213 | 6 |
7 | Baylor | 1143 | 7 | Texas A&M | 1197 | 7 |
8 | Notre Dame | 967 | 9 | Notre Dame | 1022 | 9 |
9 | Michigan State | 905 | 11 | Michigan State | 920 | 11 |
10 | Ole Miss | 889 | 10 | UCLA | 899 | 10 |
11 | UCLA | 806 | 12 | Ole Miss | 875 | 12 |
12 | Georgia | 789 | 13 | Arizona State | 792 | 13 |
13 | South Carolina | 764 | 14 | Georgia | 768 | 14 |
14 | Mississippi St. | 706 | NR | Stanford | 657 | 15 |
15 | Arizona State | 702 | 15 | South Carolina | 630 | 16 |
16 | Stanford | 564 | 16 | Mississippi St. | 523 | NR |
17 | LSU | 541 | 8 | Wisconsin | 518 | 17 |
18 | USC | 459 | 17 | LSU | 514 | 8 |
19 | Wisconsin | 451 | 19 | Nebraska | 433 | 22 |
20 | BYU | 376 | 21 | Ohio State | 407 | 18 |
21 | Nebraska | 296 | 24 | BYU | 381 | 23 |
22 | Ohio State | 196 | 23 | USC | 309 | 21 |
23 | East Carolina | 180 | NR | Duke | 155 | NR |
24 | Oklahoma State | 132 | 25 | East Carolina | 153 | NR |
25 | Kansas State | 131 | 20 | Kansas State | 128 | 20 |