College football rankings: Arizona Wildcats enter BCS, AP Poll

It's often a silly argument to start, but the Arizona Wildcats are apparently the best three-loss team in the nation. Rich Rodriguez has led the Wildcats to a No. 22 spot in the BCS rankings and No. 24 in the Associated Press Poll released Sunday.

Strength of schedule is the obvious reasoning. Arizona's three losses are all to top-15 teams in the BCS. The Wildcats fell to No. 4 Oregon, No. 11 Oregon State and No. 14 Stanford. Arizona's 39-36 victory against USC, which comes in at No. 17 in the BCS, obviously helps, as does the upset against the Oklahoma State Cowboys, who are 5-2 and ranked No. 24 in the poll.

Arizona is the only team in the BCS top-25 not ranked in either the Harris Poll or USA Today Coaches Poll. They got a lot of pop from the computer rankings, which on average rank the Wildcats 14th.

Links

• Matt Scott tweeted he was simply tired during the fourth quarter during Saturday's 39-36 win against the USC Trojans. He did run a lot. And the tweet is a good sign for the UCLA game. But then you must ask this question: Why was Scott pulled for B.J. Denker later on if he had no concussion? Because he was tired? Though maybe it's a good sign. ESPN reported during the game that Scott had appeared to fail concussion tests, but it's also possible that the medical staff was simply being overly cautious.
• Deadspin wrote a similar article to the Forbes piece we shared yesterday to question Arizona's decision to keep Matt Scott in the game. This one centered on fan reaction.
• Scott earned the Walter Camp Award this week for the best offensive performance in the nation.
• Arizona got a commitment from JC athlete Mario Alford after the game, reports Ryan Finley.