Bowl standings by conference thus far

[Jim]

Mountain West 4-1 (clinched championsip at 80%)
SEC 6-2 (one blowout win, one blowout loss and several close games)
Pac Ten 4-2 (two blowout wins and one blowout loss)
Big 12 5-3 (three blowout wins, one blowout loss)
Big East 2-2 (one blowout win, one blowout loss)
Big Ten 3-4 (one major upset win and one blowout loss)
ACC 2-6 (a mixed bag with no blowouts either way)
WAC 1-3 (Fresno State wins in Humanitarian, Boise, Hawaii, Nevada lose)
CUSA 1-4 (ECU gets an upset win, Houston, Memphis, UCF and USM lose)
MAC 0-1 (Tulsa vs. BGSU and Rutgers vs. Ball State remain)
Sun Belt 1-0 (Yes the conference was unbeaten but only one bowl game)

If Ohio State wins, I think the final Top Ten BCS:

OHIO STATE
GEORGIA
MISSOURI
KANSAS
USC
WEST VIRGINIA
LSU
VIRGINIA TECH
TENNESSEE
BOSTON COLLEGE

If Ohio State loses:

LSU
GEORGIA
OHIO STATE
MISSOURI
KANSAS
USC
WEST VIRGINIA
VIRGINIA TECH
TENNESSEE
BOSTON COLLEGE

[ZOOMBAG]

Mountain West 4-1 (clinched championsip at 80%)
SEC 6-2 (one blowout win, one blowout loss and several close games)
Pac Ten 4-2 (two blowout wins and one blowout loss)
Big 12 5-3 (three blowout wins, one blowout loss)
Big East 2-2 (one blowout win, one blowout loss)
Big Ten 3-4 (one major upset win and one blowout loss)
ACC 2-6 (a mixed bag with no blowouts either way)
CUSA 1-4 (ECU gets an upset win, Houston, Memphis, UCF and USM lose)
WAC 1-3 (Fresno State wins in Humanitarian, Boise, Hawaii, Nevada lose)
MAC 0-1 (Tulsa vs. BGSU and Rutgers vs. Ball State remain)
Sun Belt 1-0 (Yes the conference was unbeaten but only one bowl game)

If Ohio State wins, I think the final Top Ten BCS:

OHIO STATE
GEORGIA
MISSOURI
KANSAS
USC
WEST VIRGINIA
LSU
VIRGINIA TECH
TENNESSEE
BOSTON COLLEGE

If Ohio State loses:

LSU
GEORGIA
OHIO STATE
MISSOURI
KANSAS
USC
WEST VIRGINIA
VIRGINIA TECH
TENNESSEE
BOSTON COLLEGE


Ohio St wins and both the Coaches and AP will vote them #1. But if LSU wins I think we have another split title with LSU #1 in the poll that is forced to vote them that way but either Georgia, Kansas or USC may win the AP vote.

[buckeyejim]

Either LSU or Ohio State will be #1. #2 will be either USC or Georgia and #3 will be either USC or Georgia . #4 will be either LSU or Ohio State and West Virginia will be #5.

[Tyler Durden]

Ohio St wins and both the Coaches and AP will vote them #1. But if LSU wins I think we have another split title with LSU #1 in the poll that is forced to vote them that way but either Georgia, Kansas or USC may win the AP vote.

No split title this year. The winner of the BCS title game will be the overwhelming champ in the AP.

Besides, the AP carries no weight anymore, despite what ESPN says.

[tigercpa]

No split title this year. The winner of the BCS title game will be the overwhelming champ in the AP.

Besides, the AP carries no weight anymore, despite what ESPN says.

Says whom?

The winner of the AP is still a recognized national champion.

[Bucs90]

Zoom, I think you're right, if LSU wins we may have a split. I truly think UGA is the new "USC" in that they probably are the "shoulda been" champ, BUT, I'll hold that judgement until after OSU vs LSU. If one of those teams comes out and looks amazing and wins big, they may be my choice. USC and UGA looked freagin awesome, but they had a month off to heal and display their team. Gotta give OSU and LSU the same chance.

Funny, the "NC" is now like a dog or car show, each team using the bowl to "show" it's team in hopes of swaying human opinions.

[AJBuckeye]

Here is why a split won't happen. The AP has both OSU and LSU clearly ahead of the pack with Oklahoma at number 3. Looking at the numbers you can conclude that between 80 and 90 percent of the ballots have LSU and OSU in the top 2. For a split to happen LSU will need to win and somehow the voters will need to make a judgement that either UGAs or USC wins over teams outside of the top 10 is more impressive than LSU over tOSU. Also factor in that if OSU loses many pollsters may still peg OSU at number 2 thus making it next to impossible for the split.

[Jim]

The real chase will occur for the #2 spot behind Ohio State if LSU happens to lose. There will not be a split. Nobody will climb from a #5 spot into a share with the Buckeyes since #2 LSU will have lost along with #3 VPI and #4 Oklahoma. The team with the most to gain is Georgia followed by a battle between Missouri and Kansas for the #3 spot (But perhaps USC was thinking ahead when the Rose Bowl selected Illinois). Missouri pounded Arkansas in a non-BCS bowl, Kansas won a close one as the underdog while Georgia crushed the nation's only unbeaten team, Hawaii, in the Sugar. VPI won't get spanked to harshly but Oklahoma is going to tank and fall into a BCS #10 at the very best. I suspect the Sooners won't make the top ten however. They had the worst performance by any BCS team as they were favored and got blown out. Both Illinois and Hawaii were at least underdogs and both were double digit underdogs or as close as you could get to being one right out of the gate.

If LSU wins then Ohio State will drop to #2 or #3 depending upon how badly they are beaten. If in a pounding expect them to fall like OU did when they lost to USC. If it is close then they'll drop to #2. Georgia will be either #2 (Ohio State win) or #3 (LSU win). They were the highest placed team after VPI and OU. Missouri and Kansas will follow them up with USC probably displacing one or both since they won a BCS bowl in a blowout. Watch for West Virginia to be the major beneficiary after Georgia and get nods over each of Mizzou, KU and USC.

[Bucs90]

It would definitely take an ugly LSU win. Say a 14-13 win plagued by OSU fumbles and penalties along with some pure dumb luck for LSU. That combined with UGA and USC's impressive win, maybe we get a split. I can only hope.

[Jim]

Well, glad to see you're not picky B90. A win, regardless of how ugly, would guarantee LSU the trophy. I'd imagine OU would gladly settle for the same type of hypothetical outcome as well - in hindsight of course.

[ZOOMBAG]

There are two titles, the BCS title and the AP title. Most of the time they coincide, but some time they don't. Both hold roughly equal weight. The last split title belonged to USC who did not play in the BCS title game. Yet they were still considered national champions that year.

Fairly good chance they may split again, however, USC, UGA and KU may split the vote that would normally have gone to a single team in years past, thus giving the AP title to winner of the game....

But the winner of the BCS game this year will NOT be held in very high regard because there were eight very equal claims to the two spots going in....

[ZOOMBAG]

Normally that would be a lock for the winner, but the AP like the Harris, jumped LSU a lot more than the should have because with all the upsets most just threw out their previous ballots and re-rated teams as if no one had a prior ranking. They may do that again, ending up with some very odd results.

[ZOOMBAG]

OSU wins and they are unanimous. If LSU wins in a close one, the AP may do what they did after the last week of the season. Wipe out all previous standings and just vote who is the best, next best, etc... as if it were week one....