If Ifs and Buts Are Candy and Nuts, Your Top-10 Team Could Get an NC For X-Mas
Don Meredith once said, "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas."
Well, I'd like to rephrase that a bit and say that if ifs and buts are candy and nuts, your top-10 team might have a shot at a national championship game.
Not all of these scenarios are likely, but there are at least plausible scenarios where every one of the top 10 teams could have a shot at the BCS National Championship Game.
Want to know how your top-10 team could bring you a national championship? If all the things happen that need to happen to the teams in front, but your team wins out, here's how your team could make it.
1. Oregon
1 of 10
IF: Well for you there are no ifs. It doesn't matter what happens elsewhere. Of all the scenarios in college football right now, this one is the least complicated.
You do have two tough games though, first you have to get by No. 23 Arizona. then you're on the road with in state, in conference rival, Oregon State. It's simple, but that doesn't mean it's going to be easy.
2: Auburn
2 of 10
IF: You have to win out, too, but it's not going to be nearly as easy. You've got to get past your instate, in conference rival, Alabama. Then you have to beat South Carolina again in the SEC Championship Game.
You also have to hope that nothing ends up coming out of the whole Cam Newton saga. The thing is, you do have Cam Newton, and Cam is the best college football player in the nation.
If you take care of business, and Auburn did nothing wrong, you may well be having a very merry Christmas.
3. Boise State
3 of 10
IF: You have the longest winning streak in the nation. Over the course of that streak, you have beaten two of the three teams that are ahead of you in the BCS rankings. You're second in the nation in scoring offense and you're second in the nation in scoring defense.
You win your average game by 37 points. You haven't lost all season, but you've actually fallen in the rankings. Pretty much if anyone has a right to gripe, it's you.
The problem is that Auburn and Oregon are just in better conferences, and they're undefeated to. If either drops a game, you have a good chance of getting in though. There is a slight possibility that Auburn would lose to Alabama but then win the SEC championship game they still might get in.
So you might need to hope they lose to South Carolina. If they aren't conference champs, it's hard to make envision them as national champs.
It's not likely but it's possible that either team could lose a game. TCU may not factor in. They're still a smidgen up on you in the BCS rankings.
However your complete and total domination of Fresno State along with the upcoming game against Nevada should give you the computer ranking points you need to jump them. Win out and hope for one loss, but the right loss, by either team ahead of you and you're in.
4: TCU
4 of 10
You're a really, really good team. You have a lot of NFL talent, and you can play with anyone in the country. Truth be told, you're evidence that it's time to have a playoff. Unfortunately, that's not going to be happening this year. There's still hope.
IF: Any combination of two of these three things happens you could still be in. If Oregon drops one of its two games to Oregon State or Arizona State, and/or if Auburn loses the SEC title game, and/or Boise State gets upset by Nevada, you would wind up as the beneficiaries.
BUT: Well for you there's not much of a but. You have New Mexico to play, and it's highly unlikely you're going to lose. There are some scenarios where someone from behind you could happen though.
If you let New Mexico play you too close you might give voters an excuse to put a one-loss SEC or Big 12 champ over you in the polls. So make sure you take care of business (or in Texas, bidness) and pummel them.
5: LSU
5 of 10
The bad news is that you're fifth in the nation, you're 4-1 against ranked opponents, and you still don't get much respect. You're also locked out the SEC title game (for now), but there is still a possibility you could end up playing for the National Championship.
IF: If between now and the end of the season, the NCAA rules Cam Newton ineligible, then that opens up a big opportunity for you. Auburn may be forced to forfeit all their wins, which would make you the (technically) undefeated team in the SEC. That could give you the bump in the computer and human polls you need.
IF: Another possibility is that Oregon loses one of their last two, and Auburn loses the SEC championship game, and the human polls want to have two non-BCS schools playing for the national championship, figuring it would be a mockery of the system.
So, rather than put in the two-loss SEC champs, or the team the two-loss champs just beat, they decide to move LSU up in the human polls over TCU and you get the chance to play Boise State. The odds aren't great, but it's feasible.
6: Stanford
6 of 10
It's a good thing you have Luck, because you're going to need it. It's not impossible for you to get in, though.
IF: Oregon wins out you could be the PAC 10 champ. That will need to happen.
IF: Auburn gets declared ineligible, or they lose the SEC championship game opening up a whole host of confusion that ends up seeing no reasonable way to fit in an SEC team.
People argue that a one loss Pac-10 team that is conference champs (Stanford) should trump a 1 loss SEC team that isn't (LSU) and so you get in over TCU because they don't want to see the aforementioned all non-BCS BCS championship game.
or
IF: Oregon loses out, Boise State loses to Nevada, Auburn loses out and LSU loses to Mississippi or Arkansas, you just move up the old fashioned way and play for all the marbles.
7: Wisconsin
7 of 10
You hung an 83 on Big 10 team. No matter how hard someone tries to diminish that, it's still 83 on a Big 10 team. Then the next week you went out and clobbered Michigan. You also beat OSU when they were No. 1 in the nation. Here's what you need to have happen.
IF: You win the Big 10 championship, which honestly gets so confusing it's hard to know what that entails. I think though with OSU beating Iowa today ensures you're in the drivers seat. That means you can win the Big 10, which means that if you keep
IF: The Oregon Ducks lose one of it's last two and
IF: The whole SEC thing turns out to be a convoluted mess, and Boise State drops its game against Nevada, then why shouldn't a one loss Big 10 team get the same consideration as a one-loss PAC 10 team? Especially when you consider that the Big 10 has three teams in the top 11 and the PAC 10 only has two.
9: Ohio State
8 of 10
Your team was in the driver's seat until them mean old Badgers came along, but you still have a shot. It's not impossible, and who would love more than OSU to have another shot at vindicating themselves in the BCS National Championship Game?
IF: Northwestern upsets Wisconsin, or even plays them close enough to move OSU ahead of the Badgers in the BCS standings, weirdly, they end up the Big 10 Champs themselves.
IF: All the other aforementioned things happen and Ohio State ends up the Big 10 champ, then it's feasible, though not likely, they could end up being the other team in the National Championship game.
8: Nebraska Cornhuskers
9 of 10
You're an odd bunch. You struggled more with South Dakota State than you did with Missouri right when everyone thought Missouri was ready to run all the way to the title. Now, if you win out, you've got a shot at the big prize.
IF: Oregon drops one game, and
IF: Auburn either drops two, or the Cam Newton saga ends badly for Auburn, why should a one loss Big 12 champ, with a conference championship win, get the same credence or even more than a Pac 10 champ that has one loss?
10: Oklahoma State
10 of 10
You're a team that has to be happy even to be on this list. When the season started you weren't even ranked, and now you have an outside shot at the National Championship game, so an outside chance is a big improvement over no chance at all, which is where you were when things started.
IF: You can win out, which is going to be no picnic, considering that means you have to beat Oklahoma and Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game, you're going to prove to the world that you're a very legitimate team.
IF: Both Auburn and Oregon lose at least one, and the voters don't want to see the non-BCS national championship game you could jump the Big 10 schools in front of you on the strength of your finishing against two very credible opponents.
You'd be the only one-loss team with a conference championship game. It's improbable, but not impossible.
