BCS Projections Week 10: Jerry Palm Has Stanford Sliding Upward in BCS Standings

For a second there on Saturday night, it looked like Stanford's dreams of a spot in the BCS National Championship Game were going to be sacked by the men of Troy.

Next thing you knew, Andrew Luck did his best John Elway impression, and the Cardinal had themselves a 56-48 triple-overtime win. Just like they drew it up.

Or not.

At any rate, a victory on the road against USC is definitely something Stanford can write home about. Sanctions or no sanctions, beating the Trojans in their own house is not an easy thing to do. Because they were able to do it, Stanford is clearly a better team than it was getting credit for.

The BCS standings should reflect as much when they are updated a couple hours from now. Stanford entered the weekend at No. 6, but Jerry Palm of CBS Sports is projecting the Cardinal to be No. 4 when the standings are updated later on this evening.

If Stanford is ranked that highly when the new rankings are announced, it should not come as a surprise. Soon-to-be-former No. 5 Clemson suffered its first loss at the hands of Georgia Tech, and current No. 4 Boise State was idle this weekend.

It may seem slightly unfair to knock Boise State down to accommodate Stanford, but it's not. Boise State has played a very easy schedule since its opening win at Georgia, and Stanford has spent the last two weeks racking up wins over tough Pac-12 opponents in Washington and USC.

The BCS computers are not overly impressed by the Pac-12 this year, but even they understand that the Pac-12 is tougher than the Mountain West.

If Stanford does end up at No. 4, its goal of making it to the title game will be that much more realistic. No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama can't both finish undefeated, and No. 3 Oklahoma State has to beat Oklahoma to go undefeated, which is not going to be easy.

All Stanford can do is keep winning, which is something the Cardinal has done in 16 straight games now. If they win their final four regular season games and then win the first ever Pac-12 Championship Game, they could very well be headed to the Superdome.

A lot can happen now and then. Stanford had better hope for good luck.