Ugh. The USC Trojans are fresh off back-to-back underwhelming games against the Oregon Ducks and Arizona State Sun Devils.

The Trojans' battered, iffy defense got exposed in a 47-20 loss to Oregon, the worst of Carroll's tenure, while the Sun Devils held USC to only one offensive touchdown in a 14-9 win. Presumably, Matt Barkley is pointing to where all the points went.

Still, the two-loss Trojans would rep out to a BCS bowl game on the strength of their schedule and of their past competitiveness (they've won five total BCS games and gone six times since the system was instituted, both the most of any team).

The remaining schedule has some pitfalls; Stanford looks resurgent, UCLA has been known to play the Trojans hard, and Arizona is winning games. But Pete Carroll is 38-2 in November, and the Trojans have all three at home.

Plus, they've already leapt up to no. 9 in the BCS despite the iffy win. Win out, get that at-large bid, and pardon me while I retch. Jim Harbaugh, I pray for you.

For Kansas State to reach the BCS, it would require winning out in the Big 12 North (not necessarily a tall order) and then beating Texas in the Big 12 Championship game (a slightly taller order).

They've done it before. In 2003, the Wildcats beat the #1 Oklahoma Sooners in the Big 12 championship and seriously muddled the national title picture (with Bill Snyder at the helm, mind you).

But this Kansas State team is a far uglier cry. Bad losses to Texas Tech (66-14), Louisiana-Lafayette (17-15), and UCLA (23-9), plus an uncompetitive loss to Oklahoma (42-30), might make the BCS voters wish they could exercise the option for a higher ranked team over a conference winner.

The BCS allows only two representatives, at most, from each conference. So granted, LSU stands a very small chance of making a BCS bowl with Florida and Alabama ahead of them.

In fact, it would require a profound meltdown on the part of either Florida or Alabama in their remaining games and in the conference championship. Alabama would have to lose to Mississippi State and Auburn (or maybe suffer some bizarre upset at the hands of Chattanooga), or Florida would have to cough it up to South Carolina and get killed by Alabama in the championship.

But anything's possible. And were that to happen, the BCS might fool themselves into thinking LSU is a better representative for the SEC in the Sugar Bowl than the loser of the championship game.

After all, the Tigers have only dropped down to no. 8 overall in the BCS standings after the 15-24 loss to the Tide.

But these Tigers have absolutely no bite. They've barely beaten anybody.

The close win at Washington, the goal line stand against Mississippi State, the bad calls going their way against Georgia, only three points they mustered against Florida. Their best win is probably against 7-3 Auburn, whom they beat 31-10 in Baton Rouge while Chris Todd was still foundering for a completion.

A bid to a BCS game would mean LSU and the SEC in general would be entirely reppin' out, and that does no good for college football. If they do make it due to the freak occurrence described above, there's a good chance they'd get smoked.

We all know why Ohio State would be a horrible team to have in the BCS, right?

Three straight losses in BCS games? Five straight against top ten opponents? Loss to a not-so-great USC team this year at home?

If Ohio State wins a weak Big Ten race, they'll capture the Big Ten bowl bid and compete in the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1997, when the Buckeyes beat Arizona State.

But this team has failed every big out of conference test its faced since beating Texas in 2006, and if they get overmatched and cough it up on the Big Ten's behalf again, they'll only add to the spleen.

The saddest part is, I don't think there's a better team in the Big Ten, which, really, says more about the conference.

Pitt can show us a lot in the next few weeks.

By beating Notre Dame and Cincinnati, Pitt can show that they're not the same team that lost 38-31 to an ugly NC State outfit a few weeks back.

They can show their defense now is better than the defense that gave up four touchdowns through the air to Russell Wilson, who could barely muster a first down against South Carolina in the season's opening game.

(The NC State Wolf Pack are 4-5 and 1-4 in ACC play, which should tell you the caliber of opponent they were.)

Pitt can show us that they'll score more than the three they scored against Oregon State in last year's Sun Bowl last year.

They can show that Bill Stull and Dion Lewis, the most accurate QB and most prolific RB in the Big East, respectively, can still put up points facing Notre Dame's blitz-heavy defense and Cincinnati's well-disciplined zone coverage.

At no. 12 in the BCS, they're poised to capture a BCS bid with a win over Cincinnati at Heinz Field. If they can show they deserve it, we won't go into the BCS bowl waiting and watching for the Wannstache to collapse.

Arizona has never sniffed a BCS bowl in the Mike Stoops era, so this is the closest they've come yet.

At no. 17 in the BCS, and with remaining games against Pac-10 bigwigs Oregon and USC, the Wildcats control their BCS destiny.

But a BCS bid for Arizona would rank among the least exciting items in the country. The viewership for a middle-tier Pac-10 team that has not had a banner win all year is, not surprisingly, anemic.

And now, their nonconference loss to Iowa suddenly looks a lot worse, and their loss to Washington, though freak, was a game that probably shouldn't have been close.

I mean no offense to Arizona fans. They've got a tough stretch ahead to do it; away games at Cal, Arizona State, and USC, and a home tilt against Oregon remain. If they can win those games, they deserve a BCS bid.

If they survive that stretch and look good, they'll have earned a place in the standings. Just not in our hearts.

The Boston College Eagles need to win out and have Clemson lose once, and then, they would need to beat the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the ACC championship.

But in a year of surprising competitiveness one week and spotty inconsistency the next, anything really is possible with Boston College.

They'd be a sorry team to see in the BCS. With bad losses to Virginia Tech (48-14) and Clemson (25-7), including 54 yards of total offense and four turnovers in the Clemson game, this could be the worst Boston College outfit ever.

They've rallied down the stretch, with wins against Florida State, Wake Forest and NC State. But this is still a very young football team In its first full year under coach Frank Spaziani.

They don't travel well, and though they kept it close against Notre Dame, they really have little to speak of on offense. They've shuffled quarterbacks and don't have any consistency in the wide receiving corps.

They're liable to lay an egg on the ACC's behalf if they somehow managed to beat GT in the ACC game. But I suppose that is why such stopgaps exist.

Let's hope Clemson can hold on - now there's an exciting football team.

Check out my breakdown of ten of the most unique offensive attacks in college football.