BCS Bowl Projections: Ranking the 5 Major Bowls in Terms of Blowout Potential

With one week left in the season, the BCS picture is finally clearing up a little. Certain teams are already locked in to their spots, and other spots will by decided by two teams playing today.

As such, we can now look ahead to the likely BCS matchups and identify the potential for the thing which upsets college football viewers most, the blowout.

Here are the rankings of the blowout potential of each of the BCS bowl games, based on the teams who will likely be playing in them.

5. Allstate BCS National Championship Game

When two teams play each other and the final score is 9-6 (including overtime), you certainly don't expect a blowout the next go round. Especially if the two teams have defenses as stingy as these two do.

The so-called "game of the century" will probably provide more fireworks in the redux, but there won't be enough touchdowns for a blowout, no matter which team gets the upper hand.

[I'm not playing out a scenario of an Oklahoma State Cowboys vs. LSU Tigers/Alabama Crimson Tide matchup because, well, it's not happening. I don't want to see a rematch of this game as much as anyone, but it's time to face reality.]

4. Rose Bowl Game Presented by Vizio

I could very easily see the Oregon Ducks blowing out either of the two teams—Wisconsin Badgers and Michigan State Spartans—who are vying for the Big Ten Title, and a matchup against Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

However, the Ducks have not been playing as well the last few weeks. Ever since the win over the Stanford Cardinal, Oregon's defense has looked suspect.

Both Wisconsin and Michigan State have had roller coaster seasons. The Spartans beat Wisconsin the first time around, as well as Michigan, but were stomped 24-3 by the Nebraska Cornhuskers. And Wisconsin had a great start to the season, but lost consecutive games to Michigan State and the Ohio State Buckeyes before beating a bunch of mediocre teams to close the season.

Oregon will be favored in this game either way, and they could potentially blowout either of these Big Ten teams. But it's certainly not a sure thing.

3. Tostitos Fiesta Bowl

This game will likely match the Oklahoma State Cowboys against the Stanford Cardinal. The Fiesta Bowl (which has first choice of at-larges) could potentially choose the Houston Cougars over Stanford, but that wouldn't change the complexion of this game much. Neither would inserting the Oklahoma Sooners for Oklahoma State.

The way Stanford gave up points to Oregon, one could very easily see the Cowboys racking up a ton on them as well. And everyone knows that Oklahoma State is all offense, so if they stopped scoring then they could get blown out by Stanford just as easily.

However, this game seems like it presents one of the more even matchups. As such, I don't see either team (or Oklahoma if they beat Oklahoma State) running away with this one.

2. Allstate Sugar Bowl

There are a number of teams that could possibly end up this game (the Boise State Broncos, Stanford Cardinal, Kansas State Wildcats) and most of them can score a lot of points. So can the two teams most currently project to play in the Sugar Bowl, the Houston Cougars and Michigan Wolverines.

Those two teams have two of the highest-scoring offenses in the country. Any time touchdowns come easily, there is a high chance of a greater point differential in the end.

What's more, I could easily see this one going either way. The Houston Cougars could take the Wolverines by surprise (the way Utah did to Alabama in this same game three years ago), or the Wolverines could overwhelm the Cougars (the way Georgia did to Hawaii in this same game four years ago).

1. Discover Orange Bowl

With the Orange Bowl getting last pick of the unclaimed teams, they will likely get stuck with the lowest-ranked BCS team of 2011, the Big East champion. Assuming the Cincinnati Bearcats win today, that would be the West Virginia Mountaineers (based on BCS Standings as the tie-breaker).

The other potential conference champion is the 7-5 Louisville Cardinals. West Virginia is the best the Big East has to offer and they needed a last-second field goal to beat the worst team in the conference Thursday night, a week after sneaking by a 5-6 Pittsburgh Panthers team.

The ACC Champion will likely be the Virginia Tech Hokies, who have been on a roll and would probably demolish West Virginia. The currently struggling Clemson Tigers would present a more even matchup with the Big East champion, but with their potent offense and inconsistency, there's a high chance a game involving them could be a blowout (either way) as well.