INDExtra

Cajuns No. 32 in BCS

by Walter Pierce

At 6-1 overall and 4-0 in Sun Belt Conference play, the Cajuns are the quintessential overachievers this season.

Courtesy ragincajuns.com

Ragin' Cajuns receiver/kick returner Darryl Surgent hauls in a pass during Saturday's 30-10 win over NTU.

The first Bowl Championship Series ranking of college football teams released Sunday has the UL Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns ranked 32nd in the country among the 120 college football programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly known as Division I. The BCS ranking is a composite of national polls and computer rankings and determines the 10 teams that play in the five BCS bowl games, including the national championship game.

At 6-1 overall and 4-0 in Sun Belt Conference play, the Cajuns are the quintessential overachievers this season, picked to finish not only in the basement of the SBC but, according to one anonymous college football insider who clearly doesn't know what the hell he's talking about, 120th among the 120 FBS schools. At No. 32, UL is ranked ahead of such traditional college football powerhouses as Florida, Florida State and Ohio State.

The BCS is dominated by the Southeastern and Big 12 conferences, with LSU and Alabama at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, followed by Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. In descending order, Boise State, Wisconsin, Clemson, Stanford, Arkansas and Oregon round out the top 10.

Saturday's 30-10 homecoming victory over North Texas vaulted the Cajuns into a two-game lead in the conference with four SBC games remaining on the schedule, and the Cajuns' winning ways are rubbing off on a historically fair-weather fan base, which is packing the stands at Cajun Field again. And it's rubbing off on alumni, too: During the video self-introduction portion near the beginning of NBC's Sunday Night Football broadcast last night, former Ragin' Cajun and current Chicago Bears cornerback Charles Tillman showed some alma-mater pride and introduced himself as "Charles Tillman, THE University of Louisiana."

See the complete BCS ranking here.