Bowl Projections: UCLA to Rose Bowl and More Intriguing BCS Scenarios

It would be easy to pencil LSU and Alabama into the BCS National Championship Game and the favorites of this weekend's college football conference championship games into the Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta Bowls.

But perhaps that would be too easy, or at least too negligent of just how difficult it can be and often is to predict how things will shake out when you leave the final outcome up to 18-to-22-year-olds (or, in Brandon Weeden's case, 28-year-olds).

Not to mention the whims of voters and computers.

With that in mind, let's take a quick stroll through the Bizarro World of college football to see what the BCS could (but probably won't) look like when the pairings are announced on Sunday.

UCLA in the Rose Bowl

The fact that UCLA is a 31.5-point underdog heading into Friday's Pac-12 Championship Game at Oregon barely begins to explain why the Bruins' chances of playing the Rose Bowl are slim to none. In short, the team stinks.

The Bruins' line play on both sides of the ball has been atrocious, the quarterbacking consistently inconsistent and the corners easier to pick on than a grade-school runt. Simply put, the Bruins backed into the South Division title by way of USC's NCAA-sanctioned postseason ban and the late-season ineptitude of Utah and Arizona State.

That being said, UCLA may finally have enough motivation to put together an emotional but focused effort against a top-tier opponent. Say what you want about Rick Neuheisel as a coach, but his players love him and, as such, will put forth their absolute best collective effort to send him out on a high note.

Combine that with a bit of overconfidence at home from the Ducks and we may yet see the Blue and Gold playing host to Michigan State or Wisconsin on Jan. 2.

Not a likely outcome, but, again, crazier things can and do happen in college football.

Three for the BCSEC

...Like the SEC putting three teams into the BCS.

Not that America's best collegiate football conference doesn't deserve to put three teams into the Big Dance, but rather that it's never happened before. Assuming LSU and Alabama have already sewn up spots in the BCS title game, the SEC could feasibly end up with a third combatant in the mix.

That will depend on what Georgia does in the SEC Championship Game. If the Bulldogs beat the Tigers, they'll lock up the SEC's automatic berth into the BCS and the spot in the Sugar Bowl that likely comes with it.

And while the thought of Georgia beating LSU on Saturday may seem far-fetched, it's certainly anything but out of the question. Les Miles may have all the confidence in the world that his guys will put forth their best effort, but it's tough not to imagine that they might dog it just a bit amidst all the talk that they've already booked their tickets to New Orleans for the national title game.

If nothing else, a UGA upset would make the BCS mess a heckuva lot more interesting than it is right now.

Oklahoma State vs. LSU for BCS title

Again, it's unlikely that anyone will leapfrog either of the SEC's top two to play for the crystal football, but if anyone's going to pull it off, it's Oklahoma State.

The Cowboys currently sit third in the BCS standings and may well move up, both in the polls and the computers, with a convincing win over Oklahoma in the Bedlam Game.

Should the Pokes prod their way down to the Bayou, they might just set up the most interesting matchup possible for the national championship. On the field, college football fans would be treated to a battle between college football's best offense and arguably its best defense. Off the field, there would, of course, be the underlying storyline of this being The Hat Bowl, pitting Miles' current team with his old one, not to mention a meeting of the minds with protege Mike Gundy.

The odds certainly don't favor an OK State-LSU national title, though it's difficult to deny the appeal of such a game along with the patently unpredictable nature of college football as a whole.