NEW YORK (AP) — Kansas State and Oregon are now on course to play for the BCS national championship.
After Alabama was upset by Texas A&M, the new BCS standings have the Wildcats (.9674) first and the Ducks (.9497) second.
Notre Dame (.9396) is third, not too far behind, but most likely in need of a loss by Oregon or Kansas State to reach the title game on Jan. 7 in Miami.
"These teams are in their order and the only way that order changes is if somebody gets beat," said Jerry Palm, of CBS Sports and collegebcs.com.
Meanwhile, Texas Tech fell one spot to 23rd after a double overtime win against Kansas.
As for Alabama's run at three championships in four seasons, and the Southeastern Conference's string of six straight BCS titles, both are in peril.
Five SEC teams follow Alabama in the standings: Georgia, Florida, LSU, Texas A&M and South Carolina. But it will take a couple of upsets to give the SEC champion a shot to reach the BCS title game.
Kansas State is second in both BCS polls — the coaches' and Harris — and in the computer rankings. The Wildcats have two games left, at Baylor on Saturday and home against Texas on Dec. 1, the day of most of the conference championship games.
Oregon is first in the both polls and fourth in the computer ratings. The Ducks have two more regular-season games left, against Stanford on Saturday and the next week at Oregon State. They can clinch the Pac-12 North and a spot in the conference title game with a win against Stanford. If they get there, the Ducks would play either UCLA or Southern California in the league title game.
If the Ducks and Wildcats can avoid the type of upset that dropped Alabama — and there are plenty of good teams left on their schedules — they will play for the national title.
The Fighting Irish are third in the polls and first in the computer ratings.
"Notre Dame is not going to jump (Oregon and Kansas State) without their help," Palm said. "They're way too far behind in the polls. The voters are not on board with Notre Dame."
The Irish play Wake Forest on Saturday and are at USC two days after Thanksgiving.
Alabama (or Georgia or Florida, which could also both win the SEC with just one loss) needs two of the top three to lose to get to the title game no matter how it finishes.
To read more, please click here
Comments (2)
Add commentThe Truth, Tech Status
We are ranked 23rd. That means an awful lot of coaches in the country think we are pretty damn good, we are. We have done far better this year than anyone originally expected. Yes, we could do even better 'if this or if that'. We do have a lot of key injuries, that is a fact. Our defense is better, just not consistently good enough, yet. Leach is gone, Tubs is here. If Tubs does 'really well', he may go back to SEC if that is what he prefers. If Tubs does 'really bad', he may be forced back to SEC or worse. Either way, Tech may then get Sonny Dykes and/or Kliff Kingsbury, both who "want" to be at Tech (and who are both kicking ass) and would likely be 'long -timers' which is what Tech needs, stability, to get to the next level. Or, perhaps Tubs does well enough that he realizes HE CAN be the guy who takes us to the next level, he takes pride in that and perhaps TT means more to him than just the initials of his name. All of those are scenarios that keep us moving forward. That said, 'mediocrity' is not fun, and not how we want Tubs' decision to stay or go to be, and does not move us forward...in th end, still obviously better to win than lose for all reasons, never mind recruiting, etc. Last, I looked at the Tubbs video and the GA. Looks like he tore the guys earphones off...lost his temper, but hard to call that anything more in my mind, though sounds silly of Tubbs to coin it as 'trying to get the guy off the field', because that's not what I see. He's showing more emotion than last year from week to week at least. The next 3 weeks may tell alot about where Tech football is going and who is going to take us there. Go Tech, beat OSU!
loyalredraider
we need another Dykes like we need another Bush...Kingsbury is too young for a head coaching position. TT could be the one to get us to a championship. He's already done better defensively on the field and recruiting off the field than Leach ever did. The Big 12 is very competitive and it takes awhile to build. Let's let him do his job. Why would the next three weeks tell us where Tech football is going? We're rated in the top 25 and headed to a bowl...already an improvement over last year (even if we lose the next two games). The incident with the GA has been blown up by the media and folks who don't like TT or the University...there was nothing much to it.