Thanks to Texas A&M, there are now only three undefeated teams fighting to fill one of two spots in this year’s BCS championship game.
Your new No. 1 team? Kansas State, fresh off a win over TCU. As we said Saturday night, the Wildcats should be feeling good about their BCS chances so long as they can win their remaining games against Baylor and No. 15 Texas, which has quietly rebounded after dropping a pair of Big 12 games in early October. Manhattan, KS, could be a rocking town here in a couple of weeks.
Oregon comes in at No. 2 as the Ducks prepare for a difficult stretch against No. 13 Stanford and No. 16 Oregon State. Despite being the top-ranked team in both the AP and USA Today coaches’ polls, the Ducks are still looking at a No. 4 computer average. That should figure to go up if Chip Kelly’s team can get through the next few weeks unscathed.
Left out as of the BCS championship picture as of tonight, once again, is No. 3 Notre Dame. It’s still hard to imagine the Irish could be undefeated with quality wins against Oklahoma, Stanford and perhaps USC and still be left out of the championship game, but that’s the way things appear to be lining up.
Alabama falls to No. 4 after losing a heartbreaker at home to A&M, and is the first of six straight SEC teams in the BCS top 10 -- yet the SEC’s streak of six straight BCS championship game appearances could very well be coming to an end -- before Florida State rounds out the list.
Staying in the ACC, Clemson comes in at No. 11, Oklahoma comes in at No. 12 and Nebraska is ranked 14th. Rivals UCLA and USC come in at No. 17 and No. 18, respectively, and will be playing for the Pac-12 South lead next Saturday. In fact, the Pac-12 BCS at-large picture gets interesting in the next few weeks with Stanford, Oregon State, UCLA and USC all playing in important games. To receive a BCS at-large bid, a team must be ranked in the top 14.
Louisville drops nine spots to No. 19 after losing a shocker to Syracuse and Louisiana Tech, still eyeing a BCS bowl appearance, checks in at No. 20.
Michigan, Rutgers, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Washington round out the BCS top 25.
