Week 6 College Football Predictions: Top 5 Candidates to Play for BCS Title

The college football rankings landscape is ever-shifting, and every game has BCS implications. 

Several would-be contenders have already been dropped from the race, yet several more juggernauts remain.

This is a list of the most likely candidates to play for the BCS National Championship going into Week 6. 

It is limited to five teams, all from different conferences. 

The list is based on each team's odds of making it through the season unscathed.  Therefore, If I predict that Oklahoma will go undefeated then I certainly could not have Oklahoma State on this list.  

Here are my picks for the five teams most likely to win it all.  

No. 5: Clemson Tigers, ACC, 5-0

Any list picking the winners of a championship has to have a dark horse, and this year's dark horse is none other than the Clemson Tigers.  

Clemson's play has been outstanding.  I was convinced that after they took Virginia Tech to the woodshed, Clemson is the real deal.  

Clemson still has a bumpy road ahead of them, however.  

Their next big obstacle is at home against the Tarheels of North Carolina, a team still heavily-laden with seniors.  

Then, it gets ugly.  

They get to play Georgia Tech at Georgia Tech.  The No. 13 ranked Yellowjackets haven't shown any signs of slowing down, but their competition hasn't exactly been stiff in their first five games.  

The real test comes in the final game of the regular season, when they play at the home of their in-state rivals, the South Carolina Gamecocks.  Though the Gamecocks have looked rough this year—especially quarterback Stephen Garcia—they are still an SEC team.  

I think that Clemson can make it the rest of the year undefeated. 

Then the question will be: Does an undefeated ACC team deserve to play for the championship over a one-loss Stanford or Oklahoma team?

That would likely depend on just how bad the Tigers beat Georgia Tech and South Carolina.  

No. 4: Oklahoma Sooners, Big 12, 4-0

This pick is sure to get a rise out of the critics.  

Yes, I believe that there are three other teams more likely to make it to the BCS National Championship game than the Oklahoma Sooners. 

Landry Jones and the Sooners have played well so far, but their two real contests have not been terribly convincing.  

First, they won 23-13 against Florida State, a team that Clemson hung 35 points on.  Then, they won 38-28 against a fairly-depleted Missouri team that no longer has Blaine Gabbert.  

Here is the real reason the Sooners' chances are looking rough:  Their schedule is bumpier than the Aggro Crag. 

Oklahoma still has to battle five more ranked teams, beginning with Texas.  

It should be readily apparent that this Texas team isn't the same one that floundered in 2010.  

Case McCoy, the younger brother of the best quarterback Texas has ever seen, Colt McCoy, has pretty much won the starting position at quarterback.  He's completed 70 percent of his passes while sharing time with Garrett Gilbert, who's barely completed 48 percent of his passes, including his two for eight showing against Brigham Young.  

After a couple games of recovery, the Sooners battle three ranked teams in a row:  No. 20 Kansas State, No. 24 Texas A&M and No. 25 Baylor.  

Texas A&M nearly upset the Oklahoma State Cowboys this year, before losing by one point.  They also hung in there with a very good Arkansas team.

Baylor is not expected to stay ranked 25th much longer, as the sky's the limit for them.  Robert Griffin III is quickly becoming a serious Heisman candidate, and completely torching everyone that has come his way. He put up 346 yards in a losing effort against Kansas State.  

Finally, the Sooners must travel to Oklahoma State and duke it out with Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon, a game that could very well be a battle of two 11-0 teams.  

No. 3: Alabama Crimson Tide, SEC, 5-0

As an Alabama fan, it breaks my heart to say that their chances just don't look quite as good as two other teams.  

However, it would be hard to argue against the idea that Alabama is the best team in the nation right now.  

They have a gashing running game, a stingy—if not suffocating—defense and adequate quarterback play.

But even the best team in the nation can have a bad game or two. 

Alabama still has four potential pitfalls on the path to the national championship game.  

They face Tennessee and Mississippi State, both quality teams, and the Tide will also be hosted by a down-but-not-out Auburn team on November 26th.  

The Tide's real test is when LSU travels to Tuscaloosa. 

LSU is currently the No. 1 ranked team in the nation.  They beat the Tide last year by a field goal and look very similar to Alabama this year.

They have a stout defense, a good run game and a less-than-stellar quarterback.  

The game score will likely look like that of a soccer game, but if there's any game the Tide lose this year, it's this one. 

The winner of this matchup will certainly play in the SEC Championship, and likely for the BCS title afterwards.  

No. 2: Wisconsin Badgers, B1G, 5-0

Some would argue that Wisconsin hasn't really played anybody, and that would be partly true.  

They did have two demanding tests so far, against Oregon State and Nebraska.  They pitched a shutout to the Beavers, 35-0, and absolutely pummeled then-eighth ranked Nebraska, 48-17. 

Their new quarterback out of North Carolina State, Russell Wilson, has been playing like a true championship quarterback, and has nearly 1,400 yards on the season. 

An undefeated team will almost certainly get the nod over any one-loss team in the nation, and undefeated is what the future seems to hold for Wisconsin.  

They currently have only one ranked team on the schedule for the rest of the year, No. 19 Illinois. Anything can happen on game day, but the odds of the Fighting Illini upsetting the Badgers are slim to none.  

Wisconsin still has to play away games against Michigan State and Ohio State, but it seems unlikely that either of those teams will be up to the challenge.  

They'll close the regular season against Joe Paterno's Nittany Lions, where they play host to Penn State.

And Penn State's chances don't look so great.  

No. 1: Stanford Cardinal, Pac 12, 4-0

Stanford seems most likely to make it to the BCS National Championship for two reasons:  schedule and Andrew Luck. 

In order, they play Colorado, Washington State, Washington, USC, Oregon State, Oregon, Cal and Notre Dame, and only Oregon is ranked.  

Notre Dame has shown they can hang when Michigan needed a 30-second miracle drive to beat them at Michigan.

USC cannot be counted out, even though I consider Matt Barkley very overrated.  He seems a little too hyped-up, especially after a low-scoring near-loss to the Minnesota Golden Gophers to open the season, and a loss to Arizona State.  

In reality, it seems that Stanford's only real test will be against the Oregon Ducks.  The Ducks couldn't come away with a win against LSU, but with LaMichael James struggling and four very unlucky turnovers, how could they?  

Fortunately, the Cardinal doesn't have to travel to the Autzen Zoo, a place where the noise is unbecoming of a crowd of 54,000 plus.  

Let's get to the real reason why Stanford seems like a shoe-in for the championship game:  Andrew Luck.  

There's just not a lot that can be said about Andrew Luck that hasn't already been said, and fans are screaming at their NFL teams to tank their season to get the No. 1 pick in the draft and "Suck for Luck."

Even the boldest of gamblers would be hesitant to bet money against Stanford while Andrew Luck is under center.