BCS Bowl Projections: 5 Scenarios That Could Completely Shake Up the Bowl Field

Now that Alabama and LSU have played, everyone seems to think they know who will end up playing the BCS Bowl games this season. They could not be more wrong.

There are still at least three games remaining between Top 10 opponents excluding championship games and plenty of other trap games for the top teams to fall into.

Here are five scenarios that would drastically change the BCS picture from what it is now.

Oklahoma over Oklahoma State

There may not be a more important game in terms of the BCS than Oklahoma-Oklahoma State. They are the current No. 2 and No. 6 teams in the country, and for Oklahoma State, it is the most likely chance for them to lose a national championship bid.

This would put Oklahoma into the Fiesta Bowl as the Big 12 winner—assuming the teams win the games their supposed to—and Oklahoma State would drop into the at-large category and likely get snatched up by the Sugar Bowl.

It would also mean Stanford, Boise State or Alabama could get into the national championship.

Oregon over Stanford

The Cardinal won’t get to the national championship if they lose to Oregon this weekend. They lost to the Ducks last season on the road in a shootout and their defense has gotten much worse this year.

Considering how poorly Arizona State plays on the road, whoever wins this game will in all likelihood win the Pac-12. If Oregon wins, the conference gets two BCS bids which would knock out a team like Houston.

Arkansas over LSU

LSU is widely assumed to win out the rest of the year but they still have to get by the potent offense of Arkansas. The game is in Baton Rouge so this is unlikely to be an upset.  However, the Hogs are still a legitimate Top 10 team. The Tigers also gave up a boatload of passing yards to West Virginia.

This would take LSU out of the running for the national championship and put them in a three-way-tie for first place in the SEC West.

TCU over Boise State

Another team that people assume will remain undefeated is Boise State but they have a tough test against TCU this week. Lose to the Horned Frogs and the Broncos won’t be seeing a BCS Bowl for the second straight year.

The odds are low because the game is in Idaho, but this would be huge for teams in the Big Ten and ACC as well as Houston. Unless…

Tulsa over Houston

The Cougars lose to Tulsa. So far this season, Houston has only played two teams with winning records and they won those games by a combined five points.

Tulsa is 6-3 with all of their losses coming against teams currently in the Top 6 nationally. With every team in the Top 10 playing at least one game against another Top 25 team, Houston could easily secure a BCS bid by the end of the year but a loss to Tulsa would ruin all of it.