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It's back to No. 2 for FSU

The Seminoles jump over Miami again in the BCS standings, but this time it might be for good.

By BRIAN LANDMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 21, 2000

TALLAHASSEE -- As the Florida State Seminoles cavorted at midfield Saturday in the moments after their victory against archrival Florida, their fans tossed oranges onto the field.

They suspected -- or hoped -- that the 30-7 victory would propel them into the Jan. 3 Orange Bowl, this season's national championship game.

It looks as if it has.

The Seminoles (11-1) vaulted Miami, the team they lost to on Oct. 7, and moved 0.51 points ahead of the Hurricanes for the second spot in the Bowl Championship Series standings released Monday.

Undefeated Oklahoma remained No.1 in the BCS. Pac-10 champion Washington, which defeated Miami in September, is No.4 followed by Oregon State, Virginia Tech and Florida.

"I felt like if we beat Florida ... that we would move back into the No. 2 position," Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden said. "Now, how firmly it would move us, I didn't know. And I didn't know what the extent next week of not playing would be. But I can only live from day to day and, if we were kicking off today, we'd be in it."

There will be two more BCS standings released, the final one Dec. 3, and the Hurricanes (9-1), who close the regular season Saturday against Boston College, still can overtake FSU.

But winning big against Boston College probably will not be a major factor, said Jerry Palm, whose BCS projections on collegebcs.com have not been wrong this year. "If there's a number out there, I don't know what it is," he said.

But other games will affect the BCS, which uses four equally weighted components: an average of the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today polls; schedule rank; computer average; and losses.

Virginia Tech meets Virginia. A Tech win would help Miami's schedule strength and weaken FSU's, which played Virginia. Florida State needs to root for Georgia Tech against Georgia and then Florida in the SEC title game against Auburn to maintain its schedule strength.

"I'm capable of doing that; I've got traitor written all over me inside," Bowden said of pulling for the Gators.

"We beat the No. 1 team (Florida State), the No. 2 team (Virginia Tech)," Miami coach Butch Davis said. "We've done everything you can, and that's all you can ask a football team to do."

In a see-saw battle for No.2 in the BCS, the Hurricanes (9-1), ahead of FSU in the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls, jumped FSU last week with a swing of 0.87 points. They then went on the road and shut out unranked Syracuse 26-0.

But the Seminoles had the advantage of playing -- and beating -- then No.4 Florida.

While the media and coaches polls remained unswayed by the weekend's results, the strength of the two teams' opponents registered with the eight computers that are used in the BCS formula.

With Oklahoma struggling to beat Texas Tech, FSU moved to No.1 in four computers and lowered its computer number from 2.14 to 1.43 (tied with Oklahoma). UM improved in that area, too, but only by 0.28, allowing FSU to make up 0.43 points.

More important, FSU improved its schedule strength 0.56 points. Miami held constant.

"Miami's magic number is four," Palm said. "They have to hope Oklahoma gets back the four spots in the computer rankings. They need Oklahoma to catch Florida State."

"It's a sad situation for Miami because they beat us in the head-to-head competition, but I still can't say that we're not one of the two best teams in the country," FSU senior center Jarad Moon said.

"Either way you look at it, there's justice and either way you look at it, there's injustice. We just hope that justice falls on our side."

Having to sit and watch the rest of the drama unfold doesn't worry the Seminoles or their coach, but Bowden confessed he'll be "antsy" until he sees the final standings.

Of course, this isn't a new position.

In 1998, the first year of the BCS, FSU needed Miami to upset undefeated UCLA and then Texas A&M to beat Kansas State in overtime in the Big 12 championship to move to No. 2 and earn a shot at Tennessee in the Fiesta Bowl.

- Information from wire services contributed to this report.

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