College Football Bowl Picture Still a Mystery

With the college football season entering its final weeks, the bowl picture appeared to be shaping up.  That was, however, until No. 2 Texas Tech got blasted by division rival and fifth-ranked Oklahoma 65-21. 

Chaos was unleashed upon college football.  While Alabama remained the top-ranked team, Florida rose up to fill the second place spot vacated by the Texas Tech Red Raiders by virtue of their 70-19 demolition of FCS school the Citadel. 

Oklahoma leap-frogged Texas to occupy the third place spot, while Texas remained at 4th.

What exactly does this mean for the bowl picture?  Florida and Alabama, assuming both win their final games, will play for the SEC title as one and two in the polls respectively, the first time any two teams have played for a conference title as one and two since Ohio State and Michigan in 2006.

The Big 12 South is in utter chaos.  According to the rules, the team with the highest BCS standing, in the event of a tie, will face Missouri, the Big 12 North champ, in the title game. 

The debate is that Oklahoma, which beat Texas Tech convincingly but lost to Texas, will have the higher standing as it has played a tougher schedule and will go. Texas, however, beat Oklahoma and was one dropped interception away from beating Texas Tech.

Also, Utah and Boise State are both in the top 10 and in prime position to grab a BCS bid.  However, it appears that one will be selected over the other as other teams begin to complicate the matter. 

Utah has beaten Oregon State, the potential Pac-10 champ, while Boise State has proven that it can beat Big-Six schools on the biggest stages such as Oklahoma in 2006. 

The availability of these positions is complicated by Oregon State's possible Rose Bowl berth which would mean USC would get an at-large bid and possibly push one of these two teams out. 

Factor in Ohio State, the ACC and Big East champs, and the other schools in the Big 12 and SEC and it seems very unlikely that both schools would get a BCS bid.

Thus, with the unpredictability of the college football season, it remains unclear how the bowl picture will shape up.   All we can do is sit back and enjoy the great football that is sure to come in the following weeks.