The final regular season BCS standings of the 2010 NCAA football season will be released later today, which means we'll find out all the essential bowl matchups. Although the Stanford Cardinal will not be playing in the 2011 BCS National Championship game, they are likely headed to either the Orange Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl depending on how they are viewed compared to Big East champ Connecticut.
We'll be back later today with a BCS selection show stream, but in the meantime we'll take a look at the various component polls that go into the BCS rankings. In reality, Stanford should not drop from their number four spot in the BCS rankings. Yesterday's games consisted primarily of conference championship games. Additionally, there were some rivalry games, but none should have a significant effect on the rankings. Stanford, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Michigan State, and Arkansas were all inactive.
The one team of significance for Stanford is Wisconsin as they were shouting distance at number five behind Stanford. If they were to leap the Cardinal, Stanford would no longer get the guaranteed at-large bid and would have to hope a BCS bowl decides to select them. However, considering neither team played, it would be fairly ridiculous for Stanford to drop behind them.
The only game of significance to affect this week's BCS Top ten would be the Oklahoma-Nebraska Big 12, which saw the Sooners defeat Nebraska 23-20. Given 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. Arkansas
8. Oklahoma
9. Michigan State
10. LSU