The final BCS projections come out on Sunday night and the LSU Tigers are going to remain at No. 1 after defeating the Georgia Bulldogs, 42-10, in the SEC Championship. The No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide was idle this week while the No. 3 Oklahoma St. Cowboys whooped the Oklahoma Sooners, 44-10. Potentially, voters could move the Cowboys ahead of the Crimson Tide with that victory, but Alabama lost to LSU, 9-6, in overtime. The Cowboys lost to the Iowa St. Cyclones. Let's keep Alabama and Oklahoma State at Nos. 2 and 3.
The Stanford Cardinal is likely to stay at No. 4, guaranteeing the school an at-large berth in the BCS. But before we break down the rest of the BCS projections, let's put out the bowl games where the conference champions are guaranteed their BCS spots: Oregon Ducks (Pac-12), Wisconsin Badgers (Big Ten), Oklahoma State (Big 12), Clemson (ACC), West Virginia (Big East, expected to have highest BCS average of three conference co-champions), LSU (SEC, but heading to National Title Game). LSU playing in the title game opens up another at-large bid.
The Houston Cougars were looking at an automatic at-large BCS bid, but a loss to the Southern Miss Golden Eagles in the C-USA Championship Game ended that. That leaves open a spot for the Boise St. Broncos to make an at-large BCS bid. But there are several factors that depend on that. If Michigan and TCU move up into the top 14 and 16, respectively, in the standings, the Broncos are out. And Kansas State is also likely to be in consideration, as they finished last week at No. 11. They should move into the top 10, but how high depends on how far Virginia Tech Houston and Oklahoma fall.
Boise State is looking at potentially being the No. 5 team and left out of a BCS bowl game.
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