Kansas State Becomes New No. 1 in BCS Standings

NEW YORK (WCBI/ESPN) — 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.

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.

BCS Harris Poll USA Today Computer Rankings
RK TEAM AVG PVS RK PTS % RK PTS % AVG A&H RB CM KM JS PW %
1 Kansas State .9674 2 2 2774 .9649 2 1427 .9675 2 1 1 3 2 2 2 .970
2 Oregon .9497 3 1 2844 .9892 1 1460 .9898 4 4 3 5 4 5 4 .870
3 Notre Dame .9396 4 3 2634 .9162 3 1346 .9125 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 .990
4 Alabama .8534 1 4 2494 .8675 5 1243 .8427 5 5 4 4 5 9 5 .850
5 Georgia .8328 5 5 2398 .8341 4 1260 .8542 6 6 5 6 7 4 6 .810
6 Florida .7955 6 7 2113 .7350 7 1079 .7315 3 3 6 2 3 3 3 .920
7 LSU .7331 7 8 2082 .7242 8 1040 .7051 7 7 7 9 6 6 7 .770
8 Texas A&M .6621 15 10 1842 .6407 10 967 .6556 8 9 10 8 8 10 8 .690
9 South Carolina .6349 8 11 1732 .6024 11 903 .6122 8 8 9 10 9 8 9 .690
10 Florida State .6071 10 6 2175 .7565 6 1143 .7749 17 16 17 14 0 0 16 .290
11 Clemson .5921 13 9 1972 .6859 9 1033 .7003 15 15 14 13 22 0 14 .390
12 Oklahoma .5797 12 12 1631 .5673 12 799 .5417 10 13 8 15 10 7 10 .630
13 Stanford .5705 14 13 1621 .5638 13 793 .5376 11 10 11 7 11 11 11 .610
14 Nebraska .4679 16 14 1239 .4310 14 653 .4427 13 12 15 11 12 18 12 .530
15 Texas .4259 17 15 1095 .3809 15 615 .4169 14 14 12 16 14 13 15 .480
16 Oregon State .4161 11 16 1081 .3760 17 490 .3322 12 11 13 12 13 12 13 .540
17 UCLA .2925 18 19 870 .3026 16 494 .3349 20 18 24 17 20 21 21 .240
18 USC .2769 19 18 886 .3082 21 343 .2325 17 21 19 22 17 16 18 .290
19 Louisville .2159 9 17 943 .3280 18 442 .2997 27 24 0 20 0 0 0 .020
20 Louisiana Tech .1911 20 20 728 .2532 19 413 .2800 25 0 22 24 0 0 24 .040
21 Michigan .1665 NR 24 264 .0918 23 144 .0976 16 17 21 18 18 20 17 .310
22 Rutgers .1529 23 21 571 .1986 20 354 .2400 27 25 0 19 0 0 25 .020
23 Texas Tech .1416 22 22 325 .1130 25 106 .0719 20 20 16 0 21 15 23 .240
24 Oklahoma State .1088 NR NR 118 .0410 24 111 .0753 22 19 18 0 19 19 0 .210
25 Washington .0850 NR NR 1 .0003 NR 7 .0047 19 22 23 25 15 14 19 .250
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