BCS Rankings: Teams in Best Position to Capitalize on Houston's Loss

The Houston Cougars are undefeated no longer, as Southern Miss routed them 49-28 to win the Conference USA title game. With the Cougars presumably out of the BCS bowl picture, look for one of these three teams to be the biggest beneficiary:

TCU Horned Frogs

Now that Houston won’t be the highest-ranked champion from a non-automatic qualifier conference, TCU has a great chance to step into that vacuum. The Horned Frogs routed UNLV to win the Mountain West with a perfect conference record, meaning they could well improve on their No. 18 standing in the BCS.

If the Horned Frogs can crack the Top 16, they’ll certainly be ahead of likely Big East champ West Virginia and probably ahead of Southern Miss as well. That would send Gary Paterson’s team back to the BCS in a year that looked lost after a season-opening defeat by Baylor.

Kansas State Wildcats

If neither TCU nor Southern Miss ends up ranked high enough to earn an automatic BCS bid, another at-large spot opens up. One team that could well snap it up is No. 11 Kansas State.

The Wildcats dodged an upset this afternoon against Iowa State, leaving them at 10-2 for the season. With their only losses having come to Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, they’ll have a solid case for an at-large spot (especially if a Cowboys’ win later tonight leaves the Sooners with three losses and out of the running).

Boise State Broncos

The team that’s been hoping the hardest for another at-large bid to become available is Boise State. Kellen Moore’s squad lost its chance at an automatic berth when it fell to the conference rival Horned Frogs, but at 10-1 it’s been hanging around in the BCS Top 10 even after that lone defeat.

Boise has one more game to play, a near-automatic home win over New Mexico this evening. Assuming they do finish at 11-1, the Broncos will be very much in the discussion for an at-large spot given their increasing popularity and impressive bowl-game track record.