BCS Poll: Whose BCS Dreams Are in Danger in Week 8?

If you take a look at the schedule for Week 8 of the college football season, you may notice there's a sorry shortage of prime-time matchups.

This is a bummer for a couple reasons. The first and most obvious is that prime-time matchups are awesome. The other and not-so-obvious reason is that this means the BCS poll isn't likely to change all that much when the rankings are updated on Sunday. Primarily, you need losses for that to happen, and there won't be many of those go around among Top 25 teams.

However, there are a couple of teams in danger of losing. If they do, their BCS dreams will take a significant hit.

Georgia Tech (No. 22)

After looking super awesome in their first six games of the season, the Yellow Jackets finally dropped a game this past Saturday at Virginia. Somehow, the Cavaliers were able to keep pace with Georgia Tech on the ground.

The loss destroyed what were already slim national title hopes, but the Yellow Jackets can still make the Orange Bowl. It will be up to the Miami Hurricanes to make that quest a little tougher on Saturday.

Don't underestimate their ability to do just that. Miami may not look like much from afar, but you have to realize that the 'Canes have played pretty well in their last four games. They played Kansas State and Virginia Tech tough and were last seen beating North Carolina on the road.

It's obviously not going to be easy for Miami to pull out a win, but you never known. Having the home-field advantage will certainly help.

Penn State (No. 21)

People are overlooking the Nittany Lions a little bit, but they might just be able to sneak into the Big Ten Championship Game, where they will be within a stone's throw (and a win) from the Rose Bowl.

However, they have to get there first, and that will mean a win at Northwestern Saturday.

What worries me about Penn State against the Wildcats is that Dan Persa might just be good enough to give Penn State's rock-solid defense fits. The obvious danger there is that the Nittany Lions just don't have enough offense of their own to play catchup if it comes to that.

Overcoming Penn State's defense is a lot to task of Persa, but he's definitely the kind of quarterback who can surprise you. Remember that time he surprised Penn State with 200 yards passing, 100 yards rushing and three total touchdowns?

Wisconsin (No. 6)

Ah yes, now we're getting into the BCS heavies.

At this point in the season, it's impossible not to like Wisconsin. The Badgers have been punishing opponents from the get-go, and this Russell Wilson guy is some kind of beast.

However, it's going to be very tough for the Badgers to pull off a win on the road at No. 16 Michigan State. The Spartans play very tough defense and they might just reveal Wisconsin's offense to be a pack of overachievers.

We shall see. If Wisconsin wins, its national title hopes will get a significant boost. If the Badgers lose, they may end up being lucky to make the Rose Bowl.

Not that there's anything wrong with the Rose Bowl, of course.

Oklahoma State (No. 4)

The humans think Oklahoma State is the No. 6 team in the country. The computers think the Pokes are No. 1.

The reason they think that is primarily because the Pokes have two road wins against ranked teams. They won't be playing a ranked team when they take on the Missouri Tigers on Saturday, but it will be a chance for the Pokes to add another road win to their saddlebag.

In my opinion, victory is not entirely guaranteed. Remember, Mizzou played Oklahoma tough when it traveled to Norman in late September. It is not entirely inconceivable that Mizzou will play the Pokes tough when they come to Columbia this weekend.

If the Pokes win, I don't expect them to move up in the rankings. However, if they lose...

Take a wild guess.

Rank	Team	BCS Average
1	LSU	.9522
2	Alabama	.9519
3	Oklahoma	.930
4	Oklahoma State	.857
5	Boise State	.803
6	Wisconsin	.771
7	Clemson	.758
8	Stanford	.748
9	Arkansas	.626
10	Oregon	.619
11	Kansas State	.569
12	Virginia Tech	.505
13	Nebraska	.497
14	South Carolina	.491
15	West Virginia	.373
16	Michigan State	.329
17	Texas A&M	.308
18	Michigan	.300
19	Houston	.286
20	Auburn	.265
21	Penn State	.231
22	Georgia Tech	.197
23	Illinois	.152
24	Texas	.135
25	Washington	.087