Nov. 8, 2009

Bowl Championship Series Standings (Nov. 8, 2009) in PDF Format

HOUSTON - With another thrilling, come-from-behind victory under its belt, the University of Houston football moved up in one poll and remained steady in two more Sunday afternoon.

The Cougars (8-1 * 4-1 C-USA West) moved up three places to No. 12 in the latest USA Today Coaches' poll. Houston earned 766 points to stay just behind LSU and ahead of No. 13 Iowa.

Houston remained at No. 13 in the latest Associated Press poll but increased their points total from 707 to 783. The Cougars ranked behind No. 12 Miami (Fla.) and ahead of No. 14 Oregon.

The Cougars also stayed at No. 15 in the latest Bowl Championship Series standings for the second straight week. However, the team boosted its BCS average from .4209 to .4691 in the latest rankings.

The Cougars were just behind No. 14 Miami (Fla.) and ahead of No. 16 Utah in the BCS poll.

This is the highest that a C-USA team has been ranked in the BCS standings since 2004 but marked the second straight year that a C-USA team earned a place among the top-25 leaders at any point during the season.

This also marked the seventh week that the Cougars have been ranked during the 2009 regular season, the most since 1990.

RECENT ACTION
The Cougars enjoyed a thrilling 46-45 win at C-USA rival Tulsa on Saturday in one of the most memorable games in recent history. Trailing 45-37 with less than a minute, the Cougars pulled to within two points on James Cleveland's 1-yard touchdown catch, but the 2-point conversion went awry.

Forced into an onsides kick, the Cougars recovered the loose ball and moved 27 yards to set up redshirt freshman kicker Matt Hogan's game-winning 51-yard field goal as time expired.

With the win, the Cougars remained in a tie with SMU atop the C-USA West Division

ABOUT THE BCS
The Harris Interactive Poll, USA Today Coaches Poll and computer rankings each comprise one-third of the BCS Standings. To derive the three percentages, each team is assigned an inverse point total (25 for No. 1, 24 for No. 2 etc.). The two poll percentages are calculated by dividing each team's point total by a maximum of 2,850 possible points (Harris) and 1,475 points (USA Today).

The computer rankings percentage is calculated by dropping the highest and lowest ranking for each team and then dividing the remaining total by 100 (the maximum possible points).

The BCS Average is calculated by averaging the percentage totals of the Harris Interactive Poll, USA Today Poll and computer rankings.

The team's BCS Averages are ranked to produce the BCS Standings.

The six computer ranking providers are Anderson & Hester, Richard Billingsley, Colley Matrix, Kenneth Massey, Jeff Sagarin and Peter Wolfe. Each computer ranking provider accounts for schedule strength within its formula.

UP NEXT
The Cougars return to action at 11 a.m. (CST), Saturday, when they face Conference USA-rival UCF in the team's regular-season road finale.

The Cougars return to the friendly confines of John O'Quinn Field at Robertson Stadium at noon, Nov. 21, when they play to Conference USA-rival Memphis.

RADIO/TELEVISION INFORMATION
Fans can hear Saturday's game live on 790 AM The Sports Animal with Tom Franklin calling the play-by-play action, Ted Pardee providing analysis and Chuck Brown reporting from the sideline. The pregame show is slated to begin at 10 a.m. (CST), Saturday.

LIVE STATS INFORMATION
Fans can follow live stats over the Internet by clicking the Gametracker link at UHCougars.com.