College Football Rankings: Alabama and Stanford on BCS Title Collision Course

Alabama head coach Nick Saban doesn't need an NFL prospect at quarterback to dominate opponents. Time and time again, the coach proves that his defense, running game and ability to make in-game adjustments are all he needs to win.

The Stanford Cardinal are the complete opposite. Although they have talented players, a top 10 defense and respectable running game, they need potential No. 1 overall pick Andrew Luck to make it happen.

Both teams took to the field last night against conference rivals and showed that are two of the country's best teams, if not the best.

Week 5 was very telling. In some instances, it was the beginning of conference play for a lot of teams, and the contender-or-pretender ratio is starting to dwindle on the contender side.

Texas A&M lost their second-straight game. Clemson knocked off a second straight Top 25 ACC opponent. Baylor lost a heartbreaker in Manhattan against the upstart Kansas State Wildcats. Wisconsin trounced Nebraska. Auburn upended South Carolina in Columbia. And TCU lost its second game of the year, likely dispelling them for the rankings for the duration of the season.

All in all, this week highlighted what it takes to a win a national championship. And in this week, we saw LSU, Oklahoma, Alabama, Boise State, Stanford and Wisconsin dominate the way a title contender should. The Crimson Tide and Badgers even did it against against Top 15 teams.

But looking at early-season performance, remaining schedule and team experience, it is the Tide and Cardinal that stand stronger than all others.

LSU has been a force this year defensively, and their November 5th game with Alabama could almost be considered a de facto national championship in some respects. But if I had to make that call a month in advance, it would be the Tide moving on over the Tigers.

Alabama has covered double-digit spreads against two Top 25 teams, and they went into Gainesville last night and pummeled the No. 12 Gators.

The Tide doesn't care who lines up on the other side of the ball; they simply continue to drown opponents.

For Stanford, a team with only one ranked opponent on its schedule as of now, their continuous beat down of opponents includes covering all four spreads so far this year. Crazily enough, three of those four have been by more than three touchdowns.

The Cardinal cannot help who they play, but they can destroy them regardless.

They'll have a shot at revenge against an Oregon team that should only have one loss come November 12th, and from there they should ride into a Pac-12 Championship Game that they will win.

With the SEC and Big 12 powers forced to battle against each other (possibly even twice in a year), an undefeated Pac-12 Champion with the No. 1 prospect in the country is likely to get the nod over any other one-loss or unbeaten squad from another conference. 

An undefeated Wisconsin in the Big Ten will definitely make for an interesting scenario, but the late games against Oregon and Notre Dame should give the Cardinal the edge if they both finish undefeated.

There is still a ton of football to be played, but with the way these two teams look and the way schedule plays out give them an inside track at playing for the 2011 BCS Championship.