College Football 2011: Easiest Path out of Oklahoma, Nebraska, LSU, Alabama?

We're entering the fourth week of the college football season, and with that comes the beginning of conference play for most teams.

It also means the path to the BCS title game is starting to become a little clearer. We know now who the pretenders were, and from here on out, it's all about the contenders.

I'm taking a look at four teams (Oklahoma, Nebraska, LSU and Alabama), all of which have a reasonable chance to play for all the marbles in January.

Looking at the schedules of each team, let's look at who has the easiest path to play for the BCS Championship, ranking the teams from the toughest path to the easiest.

LSU

Number of Games Remaining vs. Ranked Teams: Five

Road Games Remaining: Four

Toughest Remaining Game: Nov. 5 at Alabama

LSU actually has the murderer's row of schedules when it comes to looking at the toughest path to the BCS Championship game.

They've already had to deal with Oregon and Mississippi State, and it doesn't get any easier the rest of the way for the Tigers.

They travel to Morgantown to face West Virginia next week and then have to survive the meat of their SEC schedule.

If their is some good news for LSU, they only have to play one road game against a current ranked SEC team. The bad new for them, though, is that it's at Alabama.

Alabama

Number of Games Remaining vs. Ranked Teams: Four

Road Games Remaining: Four

Toughest Remaining Game: Nov 5. vs. LSU

Alabama still has to survive a couple of hurdles before you can pencil them into the title game.

For one, there is young quarterback AJ McCarron. He is going to have to prove he can handle tough SEC road environments, including a trip to The Swamp on October 1.

The Florida game is actually the second of back-to-back games against ranked conference opponents, as the Tide have to hold off Arkansas next week first.

If Nick Saban's team survives that, they still have a tough three game stretch that features Tennessee, LSU and Mississippi to come.

Oklahoma

Number of Games Remaining vs. Ranked Teams: Four

Road Games Remaining: Five

Toughest Remaining Game: Dec. 3, at Oklahoma State

Oklahoma has a much easier path to the BCS title than Alabama and LSU, mostly due to the fact that the Big 12 Conference doesn't have a title game any longer.

Yet, while the path may be easier, I wouldn't exactly call it easy.

There are still games on the road against Texas, Baylor and Oklahoma State. That's big because the Sooners are near unbeatable at home. If they are going to lose, it's likely going to be one of these teams that do it.

Nebraska

Number of Games Remaining vs. Ranked Teams: One

Road Games Remaining: Five

Toughest Remaining Game: Oct. 1 at Wisconsin

With the Cornhuskers currently sitting at No. 9 in the rankings, no one in the nation may have an easier path to the BCS Championship Game then Bo Pelini's Nebraska team.

A lot of that rides on the fact that the Big Ten just really isn't that good. Nebraska does play Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan State, but in reality, that's a collection of average at best football teams.

That make the Wisconsin game in two weeks a potential playoff game for both the Cornhuskers and the Badgers. The winner should have a pretty clear path to playing for a national title.