Bowl Projections: Teams Whose Rankings Will Improve Most by End of Season

Even with college football’s regular season coming down to the wire, bowl positions are far from being set in stone. These three teams may be down when it comes to this week’s BCS standings, but they have golden opportunities to improve their rankings before the final bowl bids are handed out:

Oklahoma Sooners

A painful loss to surging Baylor drops the Sooners to No. 9, but redemption isn’t far away. A win over Iowa State next week will help, but the real opportunity lies in the season finale.

If the Sooners can knock off No. 4 Oklahoma State in Stillwater, they’ll take home the Big 12 title and earn a spot in the Fiesta Bowl. That will mean not only a jump in the rankings for the Cowboys win, but a chance for another marquee win against a team like Stanford or Houston in January.

South Carolina Gamecocks

Clemson may be on the ropes after losing to NC State, but the Tigers are still ranked 17th in the BCS. That’s good news for South Carolina, which can bolster its own No. 12 ranking with a home win over its archrivals next week.

The Gamecocks are out of the running for the SEC title game, so the Clemson game will be their last chance to improve their bowl position. Still, they’ve got a great shot at the Capital One Bowl (potentially against a beatable Michigan State squad) with a victory on Saturday.

Wisconsin Badgers

Very few teams will get to face two ranked opponents before the bowl bids are finalized. Wisconsin has that opportunity, with No. 19 Penn State coming to Madison (where the Badgers have beaten every opponent by at least 31 points) followed by the Big 10 title game against (probably) No. 14 Michigan State.

Winning out will send the Badgers to the Rose Bowl, which is the good news. The bad news is that they’ll face Oregon in that game, a matchup that’s probably too much—even for Wisconsin’s brilliant running game.