Week 13 BCS Breakdown: Upset Friday/Saturday

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In case you were under a rock this past weekend, the BCS standings received a serious makeover when four top-10 teams went down this week.

Before we release this week’s BCS standings, let’s take a look at the four major upsets that completely changed the national title hunt.

Iowa State over Oklahoma State

Upsets happen. This is a fact of college sports. But Oklahoma State losing to Iowa State 37-31 last Friday in a double overtime thriller is preposterous. Oklahoma State QB Brandon Weeden had nly nine interceptions all year, but that didn’t matter to the Cyclones, because they managed to pick off the Heisman candidate three times. The Cowboys were supposed to go head-to-head against the Oklahoma Sooners on Dec. 3 for a spot in the BCS National Championship. Well, Oklahoma State will still play Oklahoma, but they will most likely not be playing for the same prize.

Baylor over Oklahoma

Oklahoma vs. Baylor was supposed to be a great match-up between two high-powered offenses. However, no one told Oklahoma that Baylor actually had a chance to win this game. With 8 seconds left in the game, Baylor QB Robert Griffin III threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to win the game 45-38. The offenses in this game did not disappoint, but it can be safely assumed that the loss by Oklahoma sure hurt the Sooner faithful.

NC State over Clemson

Although Clemson was a long shot to make it to the BCS National Championship, they still had a chance, particularly with an upset-filled weekend like this one. However, that slim chance was destroyed when they got whipped by North Carolina State 37-13. Clemson’s offense, which scores an average of 35.1 points per game, was held to 13 points and a meager 34 rushing yards.

USC over Oregon

This crazy night was not done just yet, as the upset meter was turned up one more notch. Oregon, a team that had been on a roll up until this weekend, was handed their second loss of the season by the USC Trojans 38-35. In fact, Oregon was down 38-20 entering the fourth quarter. Luckily, they scored 15 points to make it a three-point game, but their furious comeback came up just short on a 37-yard missed field goal by Alejandro Maldonado as time expired. QB Matt Barkley and the Trojans were more than the Ducks could handle.

On a weekend that was supposed to consist of little to no upsets, four teams’ title hopes were pretty much crushed. Oklahoma State is the only team out of the four that still has a slim chance at re-emerging into the top two of the BCS standings, but it would pretty much take a miracle for the Cowboys to do just that.

Enough with this nonsense. Here is a look at the top ten of Week 13′s BCS Standings:

1. LSU

2. Alabama

3. Arkansas

4. Oklahoma State

5. Virginia Tech

6. Stanford

7. Boise State

8. Houston

9. Oklahoma

10. Oregon

With such a crazy weekend, it is evident that anything can happen at any given time. If you don’t believe that statement, just ask Oklahoma State, Clemson, Oklahoma or Oregon.

Now, not only does it seem inevitable for an SEC team to win its sixth consecutive BCS National Championship, but also for three SEC teams to receive an invitation to a BCS bowl game. No other conference has ever achieved this feat.

As it stands, the SEC, more specifically the SEC West, completely owns the BCS standings, with teams in the top three spots.

Unfortunately for LSU, Alabama and Arkansas, it won’t stay like this.

LSU is the team currently with the inside track to get to the title game, but they still have to play Arkansas this Friday in a monumental match-up. Sure, LSU will be the clear favorite to win this game, but this has been a season full of upsets. Not to mention Arkansas has a pretty good football team.

As for Alabama, they still have to play in the Iron Bowl against Auburn. It has been proven time and time again that you can throw the records out of the window during rivalry games, and expect Auburn to be extra motivated to play the role of spoiler here. However, if Alabama is victorious, they could punch their ticket to New Orleans to play in the BCS National Championship.

Even though teams like Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech and Stanford still have a chance to make the title game, barring some even crazier things happening, it is very unlikely.

The most probable scenario at this point would be LSU playing Alabama in a rematch for the national championship. However, the most likely scenario has not existed so far this year.

All it would take for Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech or Stanford to make it to the title game (if they win out) would be for Alabama to lose against Auburn.

What would make things even more interesting is if Arkansas upsets LSU. In that case, it would be really hard to determine who belongs in the BCS National Championship game.

Let’s just hope that Alabama and LSU make it easy on the college football world and win their remaining games.

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