BCS Rankings: Oklahoma Sooners Still Have Slim National Championship Hopes

Fear not, Normans. Your beloved Oklahoma Sooners may yet play for the BCS National Championship.

Sure, a shocking 41-38 loss at home to Texas Tech is damaging, both to the Sooners' record and their worthiness of of top-tier consideration, but it's not entirely damning.

Not in the least.

Despite the defeat, OU still controls its own destiny in pursuit of the Big 12 Championship and a berth of some sort into the BCS. A win over an undefeated-but-shaky Kansas State club in Manhattan next weekend would do wonders to get the Sooners back on the right track while boosting their sunken resume in the eyes of the almighty BCS computers. Throw in a victory at home against Texas A&M the following Saturday and it'll be like nothing ever happened.

If Bob Stoops can regroup his troops over the next four weeks, he'll have a chance to lead his team into Stillwater for the Bedlam game against Oklahoma State on December 3rd in what may very well turn out to be a de facto Big 12 title game. By that time, the Cowboys could potentially be ranked No. 2 in the BCS, behind either LSU or Alabama.

As such, a win on the final weekend of the regular season would put Oklahoma in as good a position as just about any one-loss team in the country to compete for the crystal football in New Orleans.

Of course, there's a long chain of events that has to play out before the Sooners can ride the schooner back to the pinnacle of college football. There are currently eight undefeated teams remaining, K-State and OK state included, as well as a slew of one-loss wonders (Oregon, Arkansas, Michigan State) whose lone defeats came early enough in the season to have since been rendered distant memories in the minds of the pollsters and the computers.

Should the Sooners win out, there would be a maximum of five teams left with unblemished records at season's end. Boise State has the easiest road, though the Broncos showed some vulnerability at home against Air Force on Saturday. Clemson still has games at Georgia Tech and South Carolina and a possible ACC Championship Game in which to trip up. The road ahead is similar for Stanford, which has three tough games—at USC and home against Oregon and Notre Dame—before potentially hosting the Pac-12 Championship Game.

As for Houston, well, the Cougars would be lucky to get a sniff of the BCS to begin with.

So, realistically, the Sooners don't exactly need the stars to align to get back in the national title conversation.

What they do need, though, is for their defense to step up its game. There's nothing wrong with Landry Jones and the offense, though a better kick or two by kicker Michael Hunnicutt certainly would've helped.

Still, the real fault lies with Brent Venables' bunch, which has given up nearly 600 yards of offense per game in conference play at home, between a surprisingly close shave against Missouri and Saturday's disappointment against the Red Raiders. Before the Sooners can get back to dreaming about traveling to the Bayou and the shot at glory that comes with it; they need to get their own house in order on defense.

And soon, as K-State, A&M, Baylor and OK State are no slouches when it comes to putting points on the board.

So, Normans, resist the urge to push the panic button, at least until the next time Oklahoma gets picked apart by one of the Big 12's many prolific offenses.