BCS Rankings Week 12: Penn State and Teams That Will Fall in Coming Weeks

What goes up must come down.  On the roller coaster ride that is the college football season, these teams don’t have the talent to stay airborne.  Here are five teams that will sink in the BCS rankings in the coming weeks:

5. Arkansas

Arkansas has the privilege of playing its season finale in Death Valley.  The Razorbacks have the potential to fight their way into the national title game against the LSU Tigers, but more likely than not, they’ll lose big.  Arkansas must also be on upset alert against Mississippi State this week.

4. Michigan

The teams that Denard Robinson and company will play to close out their season make the colleges they played out of the gate look like high school squads.  Both games will be at home so that’s a positive, but the negative is that those teams are Nebraska and bitter rival Ohio State.  Each game is winnable, but they’re also just as loseable, if not more.

3. Texas

The schedule makers hate Texas.  First, they were forced to face Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in back-to-back weeks, and to close out the season the Longhorns will take on Kansas State, Texas A&M and Baylor.

Texas A&M and Baylor are winnable games, but after losing 17-5 to Missouri, a loss to either opponent wouldn’t be a shocker.  Against K-State, though, it would be a shocker if Texas pulled the upset.

2. Baylor

Baylor is lucky enough to play the angry Oklahoma Sooners next week.  After losing to Texas Tech, the Sooners know they have to win in style to fight their way into the national championship game.  Even at home, the Bears don’t have much of a shot.

They should march through Texas Tech the week after, but they’ll be underdogs against Texas in the season finale.

1. Penn State

Penn State jumped out to a strong start to their 2011 season because of the weak competition that it faced.  The Nittany Lions performed admirably against Nebraska after their crazy week leading up to the contest, but they won’t be able to bounce back. 

They will travel to Ohio State to play a much-improved Buckeye team.  Penn State will be favored, but it’ll be a tough win.  The Nittany Lions finish the regular season at Wisconsin in a game that could get ugly.

Here are the updated BCS standings:

Rank

Team

BCS Average

1	LSU	.9933
2	Oklahoma State	.9642
3	Alabama	.9099
4	Oregon	.8755
5	Oklahoma	.8400
6	Arkansas	.7974
7	Clemson	.6935
8	Virginia Tech	.6755
9	Stanford	.6747
10	Boise State	.5959
11	Houston	.567
12	South Carolina	.528
13	Kansas State	.497
14	Georgia	.453
15	Michigan State	.439
16	Nebraska	.382
17	Wisconsin	.333
18	Michigan	.295
19	TCU	.252
20	Southern Mississippi	.245
21	Penn State	.230
22	Baylor	.136
23	Texas	.120
24	Auburn	.079
25	Florida State	.071

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.  Follow him on Twitter.