Give the BCS credit for one thing (heck, maybe the only thing) it does right: waiting until the eighth week of the season to release its first poll of the year. Anything before that is pure speculation, especially those horrific preseason predictions. The worst from 2010: Sports Illustrated -- both for the teams it had and the one it overlooked.
It's easy to sit back in a chair and take potshots at people for being unable to predict the future, so we'll stay away from the ticky-tack stuff, such as ranking Iowa sixth (the Hawkeyes went 8-5) and Texas fourth (the Longhorns finished last in the Big 12 South). Actually, on second thought, this is kind of fun. USC at 17 gave us a chuckle, especially since the Trojans already had been slapped with scholarship reductions. Cincinnati at 18? Without Brian Kelly and Mardy Gilyard? Nope. Florida seventh? Uh, maybe in the SEC.
But these were pretty understandable mistakes. The real question: Where was Auburn? Try unranked. Crazy, right? The Associated Press had the Tigers at 22; USA Today listed them at 23; and Sports Illustrated pegged them outside the Top 25 altogether. (For reference, the SI poll had Oregon ranked eighth.) Of course, Auburn also was coming off an 8-5 season in which it went 2-5 down the stretch and had an unknown transfer taking over at quarterback (some guy named Cam Newton). So we'll let the omission slide.