BCS Rankings: Stanford and More Teams in Prime National Championship Position

The shocking Saturday in college football will give way to a radically reshaped BCS rankings on Sunday and a national championship picture that, though slightly less muddled with Wisconsin and Oklahoma out of the way, is still far from clear cut.

One of the two SEC powerhouses, between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama, figures to find its way to New Orleans, though the line of teams ready to secure the other spot remains long and stacked with worthy title contenders.

Stanford

No football team in the country has gone about its business as dominantly, efficiently and quietly as has Stanford this season. The Cardinal crushed a ranked Washington team at home, 65-21, marking the 10th consecutive game that Andrew Luck and company have won by at least 25 points.

With the Sooners and the Badgers going down, and Boise State and Clemson looking somewhat less than stellar in victory this weekend, Stanford could find itself as high as No. 3 or No. 4 in the new BCS poll heading into an explosive matchup at USC in Week 9.

Oklahoma State

How high Stanford climbs will depend largely on how the voters and the computers react to Oklahoma State's 45-24 win at Missouri. The Cowboys struggled to put away the Jekyll-and-Hyde Tigers until the second half, though an impressive day by running back Joseph Randle proved that the Pokes' offense isn't limited to tosses from Brandon Weeden to Justin Blackmon.

With Bedlam rival Oklahoma suffering a surprising loss at home to Texas Tech, OSU now finds itself in the driver's seat in the Big 12 and quite possibly as the first team on the waiting list to jump up to No. 2 after LSU and Alabama face off on November 5th. A convincing home win over Baylor this coming weekend would do wonders to boost the team's profile heading into a challenging stretch to end the season.

Oregon

It's been a long, slow climb back into the national spotlight for Oregon since that season-opening loss to LSU at Cowboys Stadium. The two-time defending Pac-10 (now Pac-12) champions have won each of their six games since, though only one—a 41-27 win over Arizona State—can realistically be considered a quality victory.

Meanwhile, the Tigers have looked like the best team in the country all season, making that initial defeat much more forgivable.

With that said, the month of November will be a big one for the Ducks if they are to reassert themselves as legitimate BCS title contenders. A 45-2 win over Colorado proved that they can survive without Darron Thomas and LaMichael James, though positive outcomes against Washington State, Washington and Stanford over the next three weeks would go a long way toward shifting the crystal football conversation from the Bay Area to the Pacific Northwest.