Rewards standings before the bowl games and after them.

Commentary: The rankings generated after the bowl games were completed matched the top five fairly well with three in exactly the same positions and the other two only off by one; three more teams were only off by one when considering the next five teams rounding out the top ten in the polls. After the top 15, the performance is less impressive, and just simply close to the average difference between the Rewards ranking and the polls with regards to that average for the top 20 and top 25 from 1990 to the present. The Rewards ranking before the bowls listed Oregon as #2, like the polls, but this was different from all but one of the BCS systems which were still incorporating margin of victory in their calculations. Also, Maryland was #6 in both polls before the bowl season began, but Rewards listed them only as #12 because they hadn't beaten a really high quality opponent; their best wins were only against (at that time): 7-4 North Carolina State, 7-5 University of North Carolina and 7-5 Georgia Tech. This ranking is closer to where they ended up in the polls - 10th or 11th - after their loss to Florida in the Orange Bowl; Rewards ranked them as #11 at that time. After the bowl games, Georgia and Brigham Young were ranked about six places higher by Rewards than they appeared in the polls, and Florida State was seven places lower in Rewards than the polls.