BCS Rankings: Is There Any Way Oklahoma State Surpasses Alabama?

Even though the season has yet to conclude, people are already resigned to the fact that LSU will face Alabama for the second time this season, with this game being played for the national championship.

No. 3 Oklahoma State was far and away the computer favorite until it lost in double overtime on the road to Iowa State. The Cowboys face off against No. 10 Oklahoma on Saturday in Stillwater with the Big 12 Championship on the line.

Is it possible that they can supplant Alabama with a win over their rivals?

Unfortunately for some, it doesn’t look that way.

State is .084 behind the Tide, and that is a lot of ground to make up when you consider how close these two schools are in the computers despite the Pokes' loss.

Alabama narrowly edges them out for an average of second in the computers with the wide margin coming in the human polls. The Coaches’ and Harris Polls each rank them at fifth, while Alabama is the clear cut No. 2 by a whopping 8.5 and 8.1 percent, respectively.

These two polls make up two-thirds of the BCS rankings, so an emphatic Oklahoma State win—and it has to be emphatic because No. 5 Virginia Tech plays No. 20 Clemson—would likely bump this team up into third in the polls. The Cowboys would without a doubt take over the second spot in the computers.

But the coaches seem to buy into the Tide unconditionally despite their surprisingly poor overall resume. The Harris Poll could make the teams pretty even, but the edge would still be with Alabama.

With a .084 head start and a ceiling on how much love the computers can give State, it is highly unlikely that there will be enough votes to get it into the national championship this season.