After multiple weeks of the boring old status quo, the 2010 BCS Standings were turned a bit on their ear this holiday weekend. Although Oregon, Auburn and TCU all got away with wins (some closer than others!), BCS No. 4 Boise State and No. 5 LSU both lost and saw their BCS hopes potentially go up in flames. Standing there getting warm by the fire? Your Stanford Cardinal!
Entering this weekend, Stanford stood at No. 6 in the BCS, too far away from LSU and Boise to make any sort of leap with a win over Oregon State. Stanford couldn't afford to lose to Oregon State, but they also needed a lot of help if they wanted to get into a BCS bowl game. Friday and Saturday night might have done enough to make that happen. Friday night saw Boise State's kicker miss a pair of potential winning field goals and Nevada escaped with the biggest win in school history. Saturday night saw LSU fall behind one too many times as No. 12 Arkansas handled them with what I would consider a surprising amount of ease.
In turn, Stanford handled their business as was required as they blew out the Oregon State Beavers 38-0 to finish the 2010 season 11-1, setting a record for most wins in a season. This victory combined with losses by Boise State and LSU will launch the Cardinal past those two in the standings. There is a question as to whether Wisconsin might leapfrog them, but the odds are slim on that. Oregon State generally ranks higher in the computers than Wisconsin, which would make Stanford's win better for purposes of the six computer polls. Crazy things happen, but it would be pretty lame for Wisconsin to leap Stanford this particular week.
The reason this is all pertinent is because as previously posted, if Stanford finishes the 2010 third or fourth in the BCS and Oregon goes to the national title game, the Cardinal will be guaranteed one of the remaining at-large berths to a BCS bowl. Their Rose Bowl chances are slim (they need Oregon or Auburn to lose their remaining game), but they would likely slot into the Fiesta Bowl.
Given all that, here are my projections for this week's BCS Top Ten:
1. Oregon
2. Auburn
3. TCU
4. Stanford
5. Wisconsin
6. Ohio State
7. LSU
8. Oklahoma State
9. Boise State
10. Michigan State