Texas Longhorns: Win and You're In

It's been absolute chaos in college football this season.

Ten top 10 teams have already lost this season (six have lost to unranked opponents), and there are sure to be more upsets on the horizon due to the current state of things.

Only five weeks into the season, just three of the original top 10 teams have remained undefeated: No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Texas, and No. 3 Alabama.

Amidst all of the uncertainty, the Texas Longhorns have to like the way things are playing out, even more so than Florida and Alabama.

Coming into this season, there was fear in Austin that the Longhorns' strength of schedule would work against them come BCS rankings time.

Texas has played three cream puffs in Louisiana-Monroe, Wyoming, and UTEP. Moreover, the win over conference rival Texas Tech is looking progressively worse (Tech lost to Houston, Houston lost to UTEP).

The BCS poll takes into account strength of schedule, style points, and a boat load of other factors.

With Texas' weak non-conference schedule, it was a very distinct possibility that, in the event of a tie in the Big 12 or on the national level, Texas would be overlooked in favor of a team with a similar record and a stronger schedule (see: 2008 season).

However, many of the Longhorns' top challengers in the polls have faltered as of late, leaving Mack Brown's boys in the perfect spot to make a run to Pasadena.

Texas' arch rival, Oklahoma (ranked third in the preseason polls) scheduled a substantially more difficult non-conference schedule with an opener against BYU and a matchup with the Hurricanes in Miami.

The Sooners didn't plan on losing those games, but an injury to Bradford in the opener seemingly doomed Oklahoma's title chances. The Sooners lost to BYU, 14-13, and again three weeks later to Miami, 21-20.

All of a sudden we are looking at a two-loss Sooner team that is severely depleted on offense, even with a possible Bradford return.

Meanwhile, the USC Trojans, who came into the season ranked fourth, looked poised to run through what seemed to be a weaker Pac-10 conference.

A win on the road in Columbus against Ohio State, with a freshman quarterback no less, was a monumental achievement.

Unfortunately for the Trojans, the hype wouldn't last, as former USC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian and his Washington Huskies surprised Pete Carroll's crew just one week after its win at Ohio State.

Currently, the top five stands as follows: Florida, Texas, Alabama, LSU, and Boise State.

All five are undefeated.

So shouldn't the Longhorns be concerned that they can still be jumped by one of the three undefeated squads trailing them?

Sure, the potential is there for either Alabama or LSU to jump Texas, but what does it matter?

Florida plays LSU this weekend, and no matter what happens, the loser will drop out of the top five.

In the event that LSU pulls off the upset, they will either jump Texas or trail them by the tiniest of margins in the polls.

However, LSU has to play at Alabama later this season, thus canceling out yet another top five team, with the loser dropping from the ranks of the unbeaten.

Then there's the SEC title game that will likely have Florida playing Alabama or LSU. The loser would be out of the running.

As for Boise State, it could run the table the rest of the way and still have no prayer of jumping Texas due to the Broncos' very pedestrian schedule.

Get the picture?

No matter what happens between Florida, Alabama, and LSU for the rest of the season, Texas can only benefit.

The only thing Mack Brown and his Longhorns have to do is win. Period.

The scenarios detailed above differentiate this season from last year, when Texas had to worry about scoring style points in the BCS rankings to keep pace with Oklahoma, especially after the loss to Texas Tech.

With the Sooners and Trojans out of the equation for the moment, and the inevitable sorting out of the SEC chase forthcoming, the Longhorns just have to win, regardless of how.

Of course, this whole scenario depends entirely on the Longhorns running the table.

If Texas is thrown into the mix with a multitude of other one-loss teams, the Longhorns might as well make their travel arrangements to Tempe. It's that simple.