BCS Rankings Week 12: Nebraska and More BCS Dark Horses That Picked Up Key Wins

Bowl season is inching closer, and several teams are still chasing their BCS dreams. Some of them, like Texas and Penn State, suffered crushing losses in Week 11, while others picked up important wins.

Here are three big winners that will move up when the new rankings are released.

No. 11 Houston Cougars

Case Keenum was magnificent yet again on Thursday in leading Houston to a blowout win over Tulane. Due to Boise State's loss to TCU, the Cougars should become the top-ranked non-power conference school in this week's poll.

That's important because there isn't enough room for two of those teams in the BCS, so an avenue just opened up for Houston. They still have to go on the road to Tulsa and have a potential matchup with Southern Mississippi in the Conferences USA title game though, so there's work to be done.

Projected Ranking: No. 10

No. 17 Michigan State Spartans

Winning on the road against Iowa is not an easy task, as Michigan found out last week, so that makes Michigan State's triumph on Saturday all the more impressive. It kept them atop the Big Ten Legends division with two winnable games to go.

What helps the Spartans is that they play terrific defense, so it's unlikely Indiana or Northwestern will be able to pose much of a threat. That would put them one win away from a BCS game in what's looking more and more like a rematch with Wisconsin.

Projected Ranking: No. 14

No. 19 Nebraska Cornhuskers

If Michigan State slips up, Nebraska is ready to pounce. The Cornhuskers have already knocked off the Spartans and went on the road to pick up an emotional win over Penn State on Saturday.

A matchup against Michigan next week gives them another chance at a marquee win as they make a late charge toward crashing the BCS party. As always, it will come down to Taylor Martinez limiting his mistakes. If he does, don't count out Nebraska quite yet.

Projected Ranking: No. 16