BCS Rankings: Jerry Palm's Projection Is Good News for Alabama's Title Hopes

Alabama's shot at the National Championship looks great after almost everything went their way in Week 11.

Their advantageous position was revealed in the rankings from master BCS projector Jerry Palm of CBS. 

The Rankings

Alabama is third in Palm's projections. They are behind undefeated LSU and Oklahoma State. Obviously, if Oklahoma State wins out this is all moot. If they lose though, Alabama will be the next in line.

Alabama's BCS average is .9099. Oregon, who is fourth, has an .8655 BCS average. Fifth-place Oklahoma has a .83 BCS average.

This is too big of a gap for either Oregon or Oklahoma to make up.

Looking Ahead

Oregon has one game remaining against a ranked opponent, No. 18 USC. They will then likely face Arizona State in the Pac-12 championship game.

This will not give Oregon a big enough boost to make up the .045 average.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma will get a big boost should they beat Oklahoma State. They also have a game against Baylor.

This would be enough to vault them past Oregon, but it is not enough to make up the relatively large gap on Alabama.

Just to put their gap in perspective, the nearly .08 gap is almost equal to the gap by which Alabama trails No. 1 LSU. Oklahoma cannot pass Alabama unless Alabama loses.