Football Continues to Rise in National Polls, BCS Standings
11/29/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
BCS Standings (Nov. 29, 2009) 
National Rankings
HOUSTON - Coming off its most dominating win of the season, the University of Houston football continued to move up in both national polls and the latest Bowl Championship Series standings.
The Cougars (10-2 * 6-2 C-USA West) rose to No. 18 in the recent USA Today Coaches Poll, racking up 473 points to rank behind No. 17 Miami (Fla.) and ahead of No. 19 USC.
Houston also stood at No. 18 with 400 points in the latest Associated Press poll. With their point total, the Cougars stood behind No. 17 Miami (Fla.) and ahead of No. 19 California.
This marked the 10th week that the Cougars have been ranked during the 2009 regular season, the most since 1990.
The Cougars also rose to No. 21 in the latest BCS standings with an average of .2204. Houston stood behind No. 20 Oklahoma State and ahead of No. 22 Nebraska.
RECENT ACTION
The Cougars scored at will, posting 59 first-half points, on the way to a 73-14 rout of Conference USA-rival Rice at Robertson Stadium last weekend. In a half of work, junior quarterback Case Keenum threw for 323 yards and two touchdowns on 25-of-31 passing
The Abilene, Texas, native now needs only 78 yards to record his second straight season with at least 5,000 passing yards, making him only the second player in NCA A Division I history to accomplish that feat.
The Cougars also earned their 10th regular-season win, making them only the sixth team in school history to record double-digit victories.
UP NEXT
With the win, the Cougars improved to 10-2 overall and clinched the C-USA West Division championship.
Houston will represent the West Division in the C-USA Championship game, hosted by East Division champion East Carolina, at 11 a.m. (CST), Saturday, at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. The Cougars are making their second C-USA Championship game appearance after winning the 2006 title.
TICKET ALLOCATION AND PICK-UP
Tickets to the game are on sale now at UHCougars.com for $40 each. Tickets for University of Houston students are free with a valid student ID. Students are limited to one ticket and must present valid Cougar Cards at the game to claim their tickets.
Ticket orders must be received before 5 p.m., Wednesday, and will be allocated in the following order:
1. Cougar Pride donors with season tickets.
2. Season ticket holders.
3. Cougar Pride donors without season tickets.
4. Public orders.
Tickets ordered after 5 p.m., Wednesday, will be allocated into the best available location within the block of tickets received from East Carolina.
Tickets will be available for pick up beginning at 8 a.m., Thursday until 10 a.m., Friday, at the Athletics Ticket Office. Any tickets not picked up by 10 a.m., Friday, can be picked up on game day at the Houston Will Call gate at Gate 5 of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium beginning at 9:30 a.m. (CST), Saturday.
STUDENT TICKETS
Tickets for current University of Houston system students will be free. Students must present their valid Cougar Card at the Houston Athletics Ticket Office before close of business on Thursday to reserve their ticket.
Students who reserve a ticket will be able to pick up their ticket with their student ID at Gate 5 of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, beginning at 9:30 a.m. (CST), Saturday.
ATHLETICS TICKET OFFICE HOURS
The Houston Athletics Ticket Office will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, to accommodate fans wishing to call or stop by and purchase their C-USA Championship Game tickets.
Purchased tickets will not be available for distribution until Thursday to ensure time for the tickets to arrive from East Carolina.
On-line ticket sales are available 24 hours a day at UHCougars.com.
RADIO/TELEVISION INFORMATION
Fans can hear Saturday's game 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.
Fans also watch the game live on ESPN2 with Ron Franklin calling the play-by-play action and Ed Cunningham serving as analyst.
LIVE STATS INFORMATION
Fans can follow live stats over the Internet by clicking the Gametracker link at UHCougars.com.
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.
