BCS Rankings 2011: Nebraska Emerging as National Championship Contender

It wasn't that long ago—on the first of October, in fact—that Nebraska looked dead in the water with regard to the BCS National Championship Game. The Cornhuskers, ranked eighth in the polls at the time, had just suffered an embarrassing 48-17 loss to then-No. 7 Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium in their first ever Big Ten conference game.

What a difference a month makes.

Since then, Bo Pelini's boys have pulled off a thrilling comeback over Ohio State, demolished Minnesota and, most recently, shut down then-No. 11 Michigan State by a score of 24-3. These efforts have put Nebraska back into contention to represent the Legends Division in the inaugural Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis.

Meanwhile, the ranks of the undefeated have continued to dwindle from week to week, with the likes of Wisconsin, Georgia Tech, Michigan, Oklahoma, Kansas State and Clemson clearing the way for one-loss squads to barge back into the national title conversation.

That being said, Big Red still has plenty of work to do before it can set its sights on the Rose Bowl, much less the BCS title game in New Orleans. Taylor Martinez, Rex Burkhead and the rest of the Huskers control their own destiny on the way to Indianapolis, but will first have to emerge victorious from home games against Northwestern and Iowa and road tests at No. 18 Michigan and No. 19 Penn State.

Should they finish the regular season at 11-1, the Huskers would then have to win a rematch with either the Badgers or the Nittany Lions to secure the Big Ten title and an automatic berth into the BCS.

Then comes the tricky part in getting to the Bayou. Nebraska would need a slew of other highly-ranked teams—including Boise State, Stanford, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Arkansas and one of the two between LSU and Alabama—to suffer at least a loss or two and open up a clear(er) path to "Nawlins".

That may seem like a lot to ask, but it's still far less than what the Huskers would've needed a month ago.

Even if the pieces of the puzzle don't all fall into place to allow Nebraska to compete for the crystal football, a trip to Pasadena to close out the program's inaugural run through the Big Ten is one heck of a consolation prize.