BCS Rankings Chaos: How Oklahoma State's Loss Hurts Oklahoma

The Oklahoma State Cowboys’ chances of winning a national championship went up in smoke last night after losing to the Iowa State Cyclones, and with them went the Oklahoma Sooners chances as well.

As Iowa State fans rushed the field and Oklahoma State’s worst nightmare became a reality, Alabama Crimson Tide and Oregon Ducks' fans had to have been rejoicing. The Cowboys' loss will end Oklahoma’s chances of getting back into the BCS championship because it takes away from the big Oklahoma-Oklahoma State rivalry showdown next week.

Before last night, a victory over Oklahoma State would have really meant something, and now, well, not as much. Before the upset occurred, I was betting my money on Oklahoma facing LSU in the national championship.

I thought Oklahoma would beat an undefeated Oklahoma State next week and reign as a one-loss conference champion. More importantly, defeating the No. 2 team in the nation in the last week of the regular season would have given them enough of a boost to jump Oregon and Alabama.

That and the fact that the media has made it clear that they don’t want to see an LSU rematch against Oregon or Alabama. Oklahoma had the inside track on meeting up with LSU one more time in New Orleans for the national championship.

Well, that’s all out the window. Oklahoma lost their championship bid last night without even playing a down. It’s quite a tragedy, but this is what the BCS has created. It’s why it’s so dysfunctional, exciting and beautiful all at the same time.

After Iowa State's upset, Oregon and Alabama are probably fighting to sit in the driver's seat to getting back to the national championship.

Oregon plays the USC Trojans today and Oregon State Beavers next week before they will have the Pac-12 championship game. The Crimson Tide have the Georgia Southern Eagles today and the Auburn Tigers next week.

If you're an Alabama fan, you have a really good shot to get back into the title game, but you’re definitely rooting for Arkansas when they play LSU next week. Should Arkansas pull off the upset, that would create a three-way tie in the SEC West, and the BCS situation would go from bad to worse.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here. After Iowa State just defeated the No. 2 team in the nation, you can’t assume these big-time schools will just blow by these “little sisters of the poor.”

Matt Barkley and USC could easily pull off the upset today, and don’t even get me started about the rivalry the Crimson Tide have with Auburn.

Those upsets are still considered long shots, but Oklahoma isn’t all the way out of this. And you still might not be convinced that Oregon and Alabama have the edge over Oklahoma.

You might be reading this article and thinking to yourself, “A win over a one-loss Oklahoma State team is still far more impressive than any wins Alabama and Oregon will have the rest of the year.”

While that may be true, you have to look at the teams Oklahoma, Alabama and Oregon have lost to. The Ducks and Tide both lost only one game this season, to the best team in the nation, while Oklahoma lost to a Texas Tech team that Oklahoma State destroyed 66-6 last week. You do the math.